Akhenaton reigned over Egypt between the years 1539-1292 BCE, during the 18th Dynasty and had the name of Amenhotep IV. By the time he ascended the throne, his dynasty had been in control for 200 years and Egypt had enjoyed a century of military and imperial expansion across the red land of the deserts. His country was at a high ebb of power and prestige and, it can be imagined, the gods, the many gods and goddesses and spirits and devils of ancient Egypt, were enjoying the many thanks of a grateful pharaoh and people.
Yet this was the exact moment when Akhenaton launched a new religion, one based on a monolithic worship scheme which was quite alien to the Egyptian psyche. The Egyptian people had been quite content with the idea that it was the gods, especially through Amon or Ra, who dictated the way the states was run and who were responsible one way or another for all events that occurred.
Yet Akhenaton differed from the preceding Pharaohs and was, in some ways and as far as the evidence can be taken, something of a man out of his own time. While his father, Amenhotep III had been a mighty hunter and from a tradition of vigorous and physically powerful rulers, Akhenaton was weak and a creature of the indoors. He also married a commoner, Tiye, a woman traditionally thought of as a Nubian, rather than cementing political alliances through marrying into powerful royal house elements. He differed in other regards and perhaps this was a factor in persuading him that the time was right for an overhaul of the religious system. In any case, as the Egyptian empire spread geographically, so too was knowledge of the gods and some gods (or god-functions) had been combined for the sake of efficiency - e.g. Amon-Ra. Conflating different functions within one god individual was a process that had, in some senses, already begun. Akhenaton took this process to its perhaps logical conclusion with the Amarna belief system.
Alas for Akhenaton and his religious beliefs, he was insufficiently concerned with other matters of state and, in particular, the military. He lost support among various elites and by the time of his death the prevalence of Amarna had already started to decline. After his death, therefore, the religion was expunged from the records and the priests resumed their old functions, with which they were perhaps more familiar and which may have offered more profitable opportunities.
