Akhenaten portrait head with attached crown

When Amenophis IV ascended the throne of Egypt, the people of Ancient Egypt believed in countless deities. After a few years of his reign, the pharaoh, who was married to Nefertiti, decided to appoint a new, single god for his country. The cult of the sun god Aton was born, a manifestation of Re, who was to symbolise the sun disc as the source of all life. Amenophis IV forbade his people to believe in the old gods and henceforth called himself Akhenaten ('he who pleases Aton'). For the new god Aton, the old capital of Thebes was abandoned as the seat of the royal court and the new, glamorous residential city of Achet-Aton was founded. In the 'horizon of Aton', today's Amarna, magnificent temples were built under the open sky to receive the soothing rays of Aton's sun. For the people of Ancient Egypt, the new religion meant giving up their belief in life after death in the blessed land of the West. Where the sun set, Aton could not exist as the creator of life and could not resurrect the dead. The loss of this important basis of faith divided the population into two groups. Violent unrest broke out between supporters and opponents of the new cult of the sun god Aton. Only after the death of the pharaoh did the old religion return to its origins under Akhenaten's son Tutankhamun. Hardly any other pharaoh has fascinated and influenced his contemporaries and posterity as much as Akhenaten. Portrait head of the ruler with attached crown. Original: Museum August Kestner Hanover. 18th Dynasty, around 1360 BC, Amarna. 2-piece reduction as polymer ars mundi museum replica, cast by hand. Height with base: 23.5 cm.