Unit 1: GEOGRAPHY AS A DISCIPLINE

 Amenhotep III — Tut’s father or grandfather — was a powerful pharaoh who ruled for almost four decades at the height of the eighteenth dynasty’s golden age. His son Amenhotep IV succeeded him and initiated one of the strangest periods in the history of ancient Egypt. The new pharaoh promoted the worship of the Aten, the sun disk, changed his name to Akhenaten, or ‘servant of the Aten,’ and moved the religious capital from the old city of Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten, known now as Amarna. He further shocked the country by attacking Amun, a major god, smashing his images and closing his temples. “It must have been a horrific time,” said Ray Johnson, director of the University of Chicago’s research centre in Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes. “The family that had ruled for centuries was coming to an end, and then Akhenaten went a little wacky.”

Word meaning

Wacky –amusing in a slightly odd way

Explaination Tut’s father or grandfather,

1. Amenhotep III, was a very powerful
2. Pharaoh who ruled over a period of forty years.
3. His son, Amenhotep IV,

succeeded him and began the strangest period in the history of Egypt. He promoted the worship of Aten (the sun disk). He changed his name to Akhenaten meaning servant of the Atens. He also shifted the religious capital from Thebes to the new city of Akhenaten, called Amarna. Further, he attacked Amun, a god, smashed his images and closed his temples. Ray Johnson, director of the University of Chicago said it must have been a bad time for the empire as the family who ruled for centuries came to an end and Akhenaten moved in an odd direction.