This statue of King Akhenaten, housed in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, was photographed by Brian Brake between 1966 and 1967 as part of a series on ancient Egypt for Life magazine.

King Akhenaten was a pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, reigning during the New Kingdom around 1353–1336 BCE. He is best known for radically transforming Egyptian religion by promoting the worship of Aten, the sun disk, as the sole god, in what is considered the world’s first known instance of monotheism.

Akhenaten moved the capital to a newly built city, Akhetaten (modern Amarna), where he and his queen, Nefertiti, established a distinctive artistic style emphasizing realism and elongated forms.

His revolutionary religious reforms were largely reversed after his death, and his successors sought to restore traditional polytheistic worship.

Despite this, Akhenaten’s reign remains one of the most intriguing and controversial periods in ancient Egyptian history, highlighting his bold vision and influence on art, religion, and culture.