Who was a better pharaoh Akhenaten or Ramses II?
It depends on how you define “better.” Akhenaten drastically changed Egyptian religious practice during his reign. There are some scholars who argue that he was little better than a lunatic, obsessed with his “new” religion focused on the Aten to the exclusion of all other deities and that during his reign he did little actual governing. This picture isn’t precisely accurate, as the Amarna Letters suggest that he was still active in international politics. A number of people are Akhenaten “fans” because they attribute to him the first “monotheism” in history, but this is another debatable point. What is clear is that after Akhenaten’s reign his monuments were deliberately torn down or covered, his name removed from monuments, and his name removed from later king lists. His reign was regarded as a dark time in Egyptian history that was better forgotten. Ramses II on the other hand was well remembered after his reign, even after the loss of knowledge of Egyptian hieroglyphics. He had an
