1. THE BREAK WITH THE PRIESTHOOD OF AMON-RA.

The expected break with the priesthood of Amon was not long in coming. One knows nothing of the details of the quarrel, but it may be supposed that Akhnaton himself flung down the gauntlet, making the rash attempt to rid himself of the weight of an organisation which had proved such a drag upon his actions. There is no evidence to show that he disbanded the priesthood, or prohibited the worship of Amon at this period of his reign; but as the ultimate persecution of that god, some years later, commenced very soon after the death of his mother, one may suppose that it was her restraining influence which prevented him from precipitating a struggle to the death with the god of Thebes. The king was now entering upon the sixth year of his reign and the seventeenth of his age, and he was already developing in his mind theories and principles which were soon to produce radical changes in the new religion of the Court. He found, no doubt, that it was hopeless to attempt to convert the people of Thebes to the new doctrines; and daily he realised the more clearly that the development either of the faith of Ra-Horakhti Aton, or of the ideals which he was beginning to find therein, was cramped and checked by the hostility of the influences which pressed around his immediate circle. From the walls of every temple, from pylons and gateways, pillars and obelisks, the figure of Amon stared down at him in defiance; and everywhere he was confronted with the tokens of that god’s power. His little temple at Karnak was overshadowed by the larger buildings of Amon; and the few priests who served at the new altar were lost amidst the crowds of the ministers of the Theban god. How could the flower thrive and bloom in such uncongenial soil? How could the sun shine through such density of conventional tradition?

The king, no doubt, endeavoured to cripple the priesthood of Amon by cutting down its budget as much as possible, and by attempting to win over to his side some of the priests of high standing. Had he succeeded in reducing it to the rank of the smaller cults, it is probable that he would have been satisfied so to leave it; for at this time he wished only to place Ra-Horakhti in a position of undoubted supremacy above all other gods. But the vast resources of Amon seemed unconquerable, and there appeared to be little chance of reducing the priesthood to a position of inferior rank.

In this dilemma the king took a step which had been for some time considered in his mind and in the minds of his advisers. He decided to abandon Thebes. He would build a city far away from all contaminating influences, and there he would hold his court and worship his god. On clean, new soil, he would establish the earthly home of Ra-Horakhti Aton, and there, with his faithful followers, he would develop those schemes which now so filled his brain. Thus also, by reducing Thebes to the position of a provincial town, he might lessen the power of the priesthood of Amon; for no longer would Amon be the royal god, the god of the capital. He would shake the dust of Thebes from off his sandals, and never again would he allow himself to be baffled and irritated by the sight of the glories of Amon.

The first step which he took was that of changing his name from Amonhotep, “The-Peace-of-Amon,” to Akhnaton, “The-Glory-of-Aton”; and from that time forth the word Amon hardly passed his lips. He retained two of his other names,—i.e., “Beautiful-is-the-Being-of-Ra,” and “The-Only-One-of-Ra,” the latter being often used by him; but such titles and names as that which made mention of Karnak be entirely dispensed with. He now laid more stress upon the nature of his god as “Aton” or “the Aton”[35] than as Ra-Horakhti; and from this time onwards the name Ra-Horakhti becomes less and less prominent, though retained throughout the king’s reign.

2. AKHNATON SELECTS THE SITE OF HIS CITY.

Down the river it would seem that the young Pharaoh now sailed in his royal dahabiyeh, looking to right and left as he went, now inspecting this site and now examining that. At last he came upon a place which suited his fancy to perfection. It was situated about 160 miles above the modern Cairo. At this point the limestone cliffs upon the east bank leave the river and recede for about three miles, returning to the water some five or six miles farther along. Thus a bay is formed which is protected on its west side by the river in which there here lies a small island, and in all other directions by the crescent of the cliffs. Upon the island he would erect pavilions and pleasure-houses. Along the edge of the river there was a narrow strip of cultivated land whereon he would plant his palace gardens, and those of the nobles’ villas. Behind this verdant band the smooth desert stretched, and here he would build the palace itself and the great temples. Behind this again, the sand and gravel surface of the wilderness gently sloped up to the foot of the cliffs, and here there would be roads and causeways whereon the chariots might be whirled in the early mornings. In the face of the cliffs he would cut his tomb and those of his followers; and at intervals around the crescent of these hills he would cause great boundary-stones to be made, so that all men might know and respect the limits of his city. What splendid quays would edge the river, what palaces reflect their whiteness in its waters! There would be broad shaded avenues, and shimmering lakes surrounded by the fairest trees of Asia. Temples would raise their lofty pylons to the blue skies, and broad courts should lie stretched in the sunlight.

In Akhnaton’s youthful mind there already stood the temples and the mansions; already he heard the sound of sweet music. The laughter of maidens was added to the singing of the birds which he heard in the trees; the pomp of imperial Egypt displaced the farm-houses and the fields of corn which now occupied the site; and the song of the shepherd in the wilderness was changed to the rolling psalms of the Aton. Fair was this dream and enthralling to the dreamer. To Queen Tiy it probably did not appeal so strongly; for Thebes was full of associations to her, and her palace beside the lake was very dear. There is, indeed, every reason to suppose that the dowager-queen lived on at Thebes after her son had abandoned it.

3. THE FIRST FOUNDATION INSCRIPTION.

Preparations were soon made for the laying out of the city, and in a very short time Akhnaton was called upon to visit the site in order to perform the foundation ceremonies. Fortunately the inscriptions upon some of the boundary tablets in the desert tell us something of the manner in which the king marked the limits of the city.[36] The first inscription reads as follows:—