Statue of Akhenaten in the early Amarna style: one of the things this pharaoh did was to introduce a more realist style on carved and painted portraits.

Akhenaten (first known as Amenhotep IV) was a pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. His reign is dated as 1353–1336 BC or 1351–1334 BC.

Akhenaten is one of Egypt's most well-known pharaohs.In the fifth year of his reign, he changed his name from Amenhotep IV, meaning "Amun is satisfied". He did this because he left Egypt's traditional polytheism. He founded a monotheistic worship of the Egyptian sun god, Aten. He destroyed the temples of Amun. His new religion was called Atenism. It was the first known attempt at monotheism in the world. Naturally, this made enemies of the many priests of the old religion.