Akhenaten Painted limestone The Amarna Period: latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhenaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is now modern-day Amarna. It was marked by the reign of Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten (1353-1336 BC) in order to reflect the dramatic change of Egypt's polytheistic religion into one where a sun-god Aten was solely worshipped