Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, who has been made famous by her bust found at Amarna and currently on display in the Ägyptisches Museum in Berlin.

After becoming Pharaoh, Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten (Glorious Spirit of the Aten) and introduced Atenism, raising the previously obscure god Aten to the position of supreme deity.

He built a new capital, Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten'), at the site known today as Amarna.

 He also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at Karnak and one at Thebes. In these new temples, the Aten was worshipped in the open sunlight, rather than in dark temple enclosures, as the old gods had been.

Akhenaten is also believed to have composed the Great Hymn to the Aten.

In Year 9 of his reign Akhenaten declared a more radical version of his new religion by declaring Aten not merely the supreme god, but the only god, and that he, Akhenaten, was the only intermediary between the Aten and his people.

Aten's name is also written differently after Year 9, to emphasise the changes in the official religion, which included a ban on idols and all other images of the Aten, except the rayed solar disc with each ray ending in a hand.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six known daughters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, later Queen of Tutankhamun, Neferneferure and  Setepenre.

Akhenaten built a tomb at  in the Royal Wadi in Akhetaten (Amarna) but his body was probably removed after the court returned to Thebes, and reburied somewhere in the Valley of the Kings. His sarcophagus  from the Royal Wadi Tomb was hacked apart and has since been reconstructed and is exhibited at the Cairo Museum.

Smenkhare , either his son or brother, may have been his co-regent and is thought to have survived Akhenaten, possibly becoming sole Pharaoh for less than a year. There is another theory that Smenkhare was the throne name for Nefertiti, who briefly became pharaoh after her husband's death.

In any case, the next successor was certainly Tutankhaten , later, Tutankhamun.

Akhenaten | Amenemhet III | Cleopatra VII  | Hatshepsut |
High-Priest Ranefer |  King Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye |
Horemheb | Khafre | Menkaure |  Narmer | Smenkhkare |
Montuemhat | Nefertiti | Pepi I | Queen Ankhesenamen | 
Queen Tetisheri | Ramesses the Great | Ramesses III |
Senwosret III |  Seti I | Taharka |
Tutankhamen | Tuthmosis III |

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