In this immensely readable reevaluation, Nicholas Reeves gives an entirely new perspective on the turbulent events of Akhenaten's seventeen-year reign. Reeves argues that, far from the idealistic founder of a new faith, Akhenaten cynically used religion for purely political ends in a calculated attempt to reassert the authority of the king and concentrate power in his own hands. In the process, he suppressed potential opposition by unleashing a terror that reverberated down the centuries. The founding of the new capital at el-Amarna was also politically motivated: Thebes, Egypt's premier city, had proved unreceptive to the king's ideas.

Akhenaten's revolution ultimately failed as political, financial, and moral corruption overwhelmed the regime. His traditionalist successors showed little mercy. With a ruthless determination not seen in Egypt before or since, all trace of the pharaoh's existence was systematically expunged.

Nicholas Reeves presents a provocative interpretation of Akhenaten and the Amarna period. Insights are provided into questions that have baffledscholars for generations -- the puzzle of the body in Tomb 55; the identity of Akhenaten's mysterious successor, Smenkhkare; the fate of Nefertiti, his beautiful wife; and the theory that Tutankhamun, his son and true heir, was murdered.