In the 14th century BCE, Amenhotep IV came to the thrones of Egypt. While he seemed a perfectly traditional pharaoh at first, within a few years he’d launched a major religious revolution, repudiating Egypt’s many gods in favor of a sun deity called the Aten, and he changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his devotion. The curious reign of Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti is an outlier in Egyptian history, and has been claimed to be the first instance of monotheism in ancient history. In this video we’ll investigate who Akhenaten was, what he did, and what it means. The answers may surprise you.