Akhenaten, one of the most famous pharaohs of Ancient Egypt and instigator of a radical cultural and spiritual revolution. In a very religious and traditional Egypt, he distilled and streamlined the religion of his ancestors, advancing a monotheistic core over ritual fragmentation and calling for a direct experience of the divine by regaining spiritual control from earthly institutions. Prophet or poet for some, madman and a fool for others, for the 17 years of his reign, Akhenaten was engaged in a draining struggle with the Amun ruling clergy. With the mesmerizing Nefertiti by his side, he built a new capital, Amarna, and transferred the court there from Thebes. His passionate conviction also gave birth to a new light, elegant and realistic art style that came to be known as the Amarna art. Unsurprisingly, Akhenaten’s reign ended with a coup and much of the Amarna art was destroyed. That is, until 3000 years later, to the end of the 19th century, the British Egyptologist Petrie Flinders discovered the temple of Aten in Amarna, reigniting the interest in the enigmatic pharaoh.