Amenhotep IV, better known as “Akhenaton” is in some respects the most remarkable of the pharaohs.

Akhenaton is considered the founder of the first monotheistic religion. He ruled from approximately 1352 – 1336 B.C., coming into power after his father, Amenhotep III, died. Akhenaton’s reign left a profound effect on Egypt and the entire world of his day. Thirteen hundred years before Christ, he preached and lived the gospel of perfect love, brotherhood, and truth. Two thousand years before Muhammed, he taught the doctrine of the “one God.” Three thousand years before Darwin, he sensed the unity that runs through all living things.

The account of Akhenaton is not complete without the story of his beautiful wife, Nefertiti. What is known is that the relationship between Akhenaton and Nefertiti was one of history’s first well-known love stories. At the prompting of Akhenaton and Nefertiti, sculptors and artists began to recreate life in its natural state, instead of the rigid and lifeless forms of early Egyptian art.