In the 14th century B.C., the pharaoh who became known as Akhenaten assumed the throne and broke with past ideologies, notably the religion of many gods. Whether Akhenaten was the world's first monotheist is still debated, Dr. Freed said, but it was clear that he tried to change Egyptian religion to a belief in one god who was an all-powerful creator. This god was worshiped through the pharaoh and his chief wife, Nefertiti, who seemed to share her husband's power. The reforms of Akhenaten's 17-year reign came to an end during the time of Tutankhamen, and Egypt returned to most of its old ways. Perhaps it is the mummies.
Young children discover mummies at the time they are beginning to comprehend death.
Or perhaps it was the civilization's grandeur and gold, its romance and intrigue, its imperial ambitions and vaulting hubris. The grand architecture surely is a factor. Unlike the rival Sumerians and Assyrians, who had little stone to work with, the pharaohs commanded the erection of awesome temples and tombs meant to last the eternity of their anticipated afterlives. The Great Pyramid of Khufu, which overshadowed Napoleon's troops, rose 482 feet and was the world's tallest structure until the Eiffel Tower, completed in 1889. So it's with a sense of awe and curiosity that we think about why and how people in antiquity built such things so long ago without the tools we have.