Construction of Akhetaten and Akhenaten as the conduit

Construction of Akhenaten's new capital city didn't take long, partly because ‘relatively small blocks were used’ (http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/chapters/10AKHEN.htm) being ‘set in a strong mortar’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/akhenaten_01.shtml) to build the city and ‘after just two years (from the pharaoh’s declaration), the ruling family took up residence to the north of the city’ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10561090/Akhenaten-mad-bad-or-brilliant.html), newly named as ‘Akhetaten, “Horizon of the Aten” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/akhenaten_01.shtml). The location of this new capital was about ’200 miles south of Cairo, in the heart of Middle Egypt’ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10561090/Akhenaten-mad-bad-or-brilliant.html), where was ‘a desert site surrounded on three sides by cliffs and to the west by the Nile and is known today as el-Amarna’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/akhenaten_01.shtml). The place ‘had never before been settled’ (http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/chapters/10AKHEN.htm), therefore, ‘it lent the site a sense of austerity and religious purity… and unlike even the remotest Egyptian village, this locale had not as yet been connected with any cult or deity. Theologically, it was a “clean slate,” so to speak. Before Akhenaten’s arrival, the place had no name even' (ibid). The site was ‘virtually impossible to feed and house a self-sustaining populace of any real size—certainly not one large enough to govern a nation like ancient Egypt—so, maintaining the army of bureaucrats and office-workers needed to run Akhenaten’s realm depended on the collection of taxes and importation of food stuffs, an expensive and labor-intensive investment of resources’ (ibid).
In construction of his new capital city, Akhenaten revolutionised the place of worship. It is said that ‘Akhenaten’s temples incorporated vast open-air courts with offering tables and unroofed shrines’ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10561090/Akhenaten-mad-bad-or-brilliant.html). This signifies a clear-cut contrast to worship of Amun, whose shrines ‘are invariably situated in the middle of temple complexes, roofed and dark, where priests alone may enter and then only on special occasions (http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/chapters/10AKHEN.htm). In addition, Akhenaten’s such move towards the sun-worship at the open-air shrines was not brand new but was stemmed from ‘Old Kingdom theology, by now a millennium old, and (infamous for its)… pervasive reputation for tyranny’ (ibid).

el-Amarna

On top of architectural discoveries at the site of el-Amarna, there remains ‘A number of hymns to the Aten (that) were composed during Akhenaten’s reign and these provide a glimpse of … the ‘natural philosophy’ of Akhenaten’s religion’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/akhenaten_01.shtml). According to such available sources, elements of Akhenaten’s religious philosophy could be described as following:

‘Akhenaten and his family are frequently shown worshipping the Aten or simply indulging in everyday activities beneath the disk. Everywhere the close ties between the king and god are stressed through art and text. The king forms the link between the god and ordinary people whose supposed focus of worship seems to have been Akhenaten and the royal family rather than the Aten itself’ (ibid).

Regarding to whom to be worshipped, it is said that Akhenaten, as the pharaoh, is ‘said to serve as the conduit between humanity and the aten. In other words, it’s through and because of him the sun-disk bestows life on the planet. In his own words, a hymn Akhenaten claims to have composed himself about the aten, “There is no other who knows you except your son, Akhenaten.” That makes the pharaoh and his family some species of divine beings among humankind, earth-bound extraterrestrials on whose good will the benefits of the sun, and thus all life, depend’ (http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/chapters/10AKHEN.htm).

For reading the text in full: http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/akhenaten/