The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect of Ra, the sun god in traditional ancient Egyptian religion.
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14 Facts About Aten
2.
The worship of Aten was initially dismantled by Tutankhamun and later eradicated by Tutankhamun's former military general Horemheb.
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3.
High relief and low relief illustrations of the Aten show it with a curved surface, therefore, the late scholar Hugh Nibley insisted that a more correct translation would be globe, orb or sphere, rather than disk.
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4.
Solar Aten was extensively worshipped as a god in the reign of Amenhotep III when it was depicted as a falcon-headed man much like Ra.
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5.
Principles of Aten's religion were recorded on the rock tomb walls of Akhetaten.
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6.
Aten cares for every creature, and created a Nile river in the sky for the Syrians.
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7.
Akhenaten represented himself not as a god, but as a son of Aten, shifting the previous methods of pharaohs claiming to be the embodiment of Horus.
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8.
Aten is an evolution of the idea of a sun-god in Egyptian mythology, deriving a lot of his concepts of power and representation from the earlier god Ra but building on top of the power Ra represents.
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9.
Aten carried absolute power in the universe, representing the life-giving force of light to the world as well as merging with the concept and goddess Ma'at to develop further responsibilities for Aten beyond the power of light itself.
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10.
Cult-centre of Aten was at the new city Akhetaten; some other cult cities include Thebes and Heliopolis.
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11.
The principles of Aten's cult were recorded on the rock walls of tombs of Amarna.
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12.
Temples to the Aten were open-air structures with little-to-no roofing to maximize the amount of sunlight on the interior making them unique compared to other Egyptian temples of the time.
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14.
The cult of the Aten was still in Egypt for another ten years or so as it faded and there was no purge of the cult after Akhenaten's death.
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