in the chief city of ancient Egypt, as we began it with the work of M.
Naville in the oldest temple there.

One of the most interesting questions connected with the archaeology
of Thebes is that which asks whether the heretical disk-worshipper
Akhunaten (Amenhetep IV) erected buildings there, and whether any
trace of them has ever been discovered. To those who are interested in
Egyptian history and religion the transitory episode of the disk-worship
heresy is already familiar. The precise character of the heretical
dogma, which Amenhetep IV proclaimed and desired his subjects to.
accept, has lately been well explained by Mr. de Garis Davies in his
volumes, published by the "Archaeological Survey of Egypt" branch of
the Egypt Exploration Fund, on the tombs of el-Amarna. He shows that the
heretical doctrine was a monotheism of a very high order. Amenhetep IV
(or as he preferred to call himself, Akhunaten, "Glory of the Disk") did
not, as has usually been supposed, merely worship the Sun-disk itself
as the giver of life, and nothing more. He venerated the glowing disk
merely as the visible emanation of the deity behind it, who dispensed
heat and life to all living things through its medium. The disk was, so
to speak, the window in heaven through which the unknown God, the "Lord
of the Disk," shed a portion of his radiance on the world. Now, given
an ignorance of the true astronomical character of the sun, we see how
eminently rational a religion this was. In effect, the sun is the source
of all life upon this earth, and so Akhunaten caused its rays to be
depicted each with a hand holding out the sign of life to the earth. The
monotheistic worship of the sun alone is certainly the highest form of
pagan religion, but Akhunaten saw further than this. His doctrine was
that there was a deity behind the sun, whose glory shone through it and
gave us life. This deity was unnamed and unnamable; he was "the Lord
of the Disk." We see in his heresy, therefore, the highest attitude