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The city where Akhenaten planned his religious changes and the place where Tutankhamun spent the first few years of his life is today known as Amarna, but was known as Akhetaten, or “the Horizon of the Sun Disk” in ancient times. Akhenaten had the city built in the fifth year of his reign in a relatively desolate spot on the east bank of the Nile River about halfway between Memphis and Thebes. The city quickly grew to as many as 50,000 people, which was quite large by Bronze Age standards. <ref> Kemp, Barry. <i>Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization.</i> (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 169</ref> Akhenaten ruled in Amarna/Akhetaten for about twelve years, until he died during his seventeenth year on the throne.
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====Tutankhamun Comes to Power====
[[File: Tut_OrientalInstitute.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Collasal Statue of Tutankhamun in the Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago]]
“When this Person appeared as king, the temples and the cities of the gods and goddesses, starting from Elephantine [as far] as the Delta marshes . . . were fallen into decay and their shrines were fallen into ruin, having become mere mounds overgrown with grass. Their sanctuaries were like something that had not come into being and their buildings were a footpath – for the land was in rack and ruin.” <ref> Murnane, William J. <i>Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt.</i> (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), p. 213</ref>
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Unfortunately, the text never makes any reference to Akhenaten by name, nor does it mention anything about Tutankhamun’s genealogy other than to say the god Amun was his father. Therefore, the answer to the riddle of Tutankhamun’s lineage must be found in other places.
====A Confusing Succession====
