In most of the history of ancient Egypt, the capital city of Egypt was Thebes (Luxor), but during the 18th dynasty, in about 1350 B.C., Akhenaten (aka Akhnaton or Ikhnaton or Amenhotep IV or Neferkheperure Amenhotep, or in Greek, Amenophis) moved the capital to Akhetaton, which means the horizon of the (solar disk) Aton. We call this city Amarna or more properly, Tel El-Amarna.
Akenhaten is known as the heretic king because he refocused the religion of Egypt onto the specific, solar-disk aspect of the sun god. Akhenaten changed his name from Amenhotep to reflect his religion. Nefertiti, his wife, shared in the ceremonies of the religion of Aton.
Amarna is not just the city's name, but also the label for a less than two-decade-long period of Egyptian history during which Akhenaten and his successors (notably, Tutankhamen) ruled. After the death of Akhenaten, Tutankhamen reverted to the religion of Amon, and moved the Egyptian capital back to Thebes.
Egyptian Terms Glossary
The Amarna letters are clay tablets from the correspondence of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten with the Great Kings of Syria-Palestine, as well as with vassals. There are 350 Amarna letters, first revealed in the late 19th C by local peasants at Amarna.
