20. A Religious Tiff That Roiled and Bankrupted Ancient Egypt
As happens often with recent converts, Pharaoh Akhenaten became a zealot, and radically altered the way in which worship was to be conducted. Until then and for centuries prior, priests were the conduit between Egyptians and their gods, and they acted as middlemen between mortals and deities. Akhenaten displaced the priesthood and made himself and his sister-wife, Nefertiti, the main conduit through which divine blessings could flow. When the priests objected, the royal couple closed Karnak’s temple, fired its priests, and seized its treasury. They then moved their entire court about 300 miles to the north and built a new city and temple complex at Amarna, dedicated to Aten.
Egypt, whose religion and religious establishment were overturned and displaced seemingly overnight, was plunged into spiritual and political turmoil. By the time Akhenaten finally died after a seventeen-year reign, Egypt was bankrupt. His sister-wife, Nefertiti, tried to continue on his path. She acted as regent for her stepson and nephew, Akhenaten’s seven-year-old son with another sister: King Tut. However, she lost a political struggle at court, and power went instead to a Grand Vizier named Ay, who became the child pharaoh’s chief adviser.