I think was always attracted to the ancient Egyptian culture was because the term 'religion' did not exist for them, but the worship of their gods and goddesses was part of their everyday life. There were more than 2.000 gods who were worshipped at some time or another. The people relied on the gods being honoured and attended to every day in all the temples, so the priesthood was vital to the survival of Egypt. A society without gods was unthinkable to the Egyptian mind, except during the reign of Akhenaton (XVIII Dynasty).

I will write many articles that will focus on this Pharaoh, because he fascinated me the most. It was in the time of Akhenaton, who assumed sole reign, with Nefertity as his queen that he set about a drastic revision by replacing the cult of Amun-Ra with the glorification to the sun disc, or Aten, who was there for all to see, for he represented pure light.

He began to build a completely new capital city on the east bank of the Nile. Its site named Tel-el-Amarna, is six miles south of present-day Mallawi. In size and splendour, he intended it to outdo Thebes or Memphis. The sanctuary of the god, instead of being dark and mysterious, was open to the sky.

Akhenaton reigned for some !4 years. Akhenaton was overthrown and all of his teachings destroyed as the priests claimed power once again. Tel-el-Amarna was emptied of people and possessions and became a ghost city. I feel that today if we only could have a glimpse of the city that he had built on the banks of the Nile, we would recognise a brilliance of a mind so advanced even for his time.
In the following articles I will share visions that I intuitively feel was from this period...

Richard.