Reign of Ashurbanipal and Akhenaten

Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal was the king of the Assyrian Empire who started reigning Mesopotamia after the
collapse of the Hitties from 669 BC to 631 BC. At that time, it was the largest kingdom in the
entire world, stretching from Cyprus to Iran. King Ashurbanipal made Nineveh, which is modern
day Iraq the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

The Assyrian culture was completely based on military warfare. The entire society was military
trained and almost everyone was ready to fight for their empire whenever needed. This, in turns
made the Assyrians really brutal, as they were always cruel against their enemies. The wealth of
the Assyrians was displayed on their enormous castles with sheer size and with glamorous arts of
lion hunting and lamassu inside them.

The Assyrian people had a very unique style of clothing as it differed from other empires
clothing style. Assyrian men were coat like garments which were long and all of them were
bearded. Assyrian women were tunics all over their body and a shawl over their shoulder. Some
of them also wore a headdress along with the shawl. Much like men and women, Assyrian
cavalry also had a clothing style outfitted for war. The cavalry had armor consisting if small
metal rings linked together with leather boots to survive the harsh weather conditions.

Akhenaten

Akhenaten was the Pharaoh of the New Egyptian Kingdom who started ruling the Egyptian
kingdom during the age of the New Kingdom. Pharaoh Akhenaten came to power during the
year 1353. Akhenaten was a very polarizing pharaoh on the Egyptian history as his reign was
characterized to be social upheaval.

In just under 2 decades Akhenaten imposed a new Egyptian religion among the Egyptian people.
He furthermore, completely overhauled the Egyptian artistic political style as he moved the
capital to a new unoccupied site and also implemented new architectural forms. In his new
religion, he started worshipping the sun god which was represented by the sun disk. Shortly after,
he started to implement series of changes on the Egyptian culture which was seen on the art and
writing.
 Conclusion

I would choose to live on the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Pharaoh Akhenaten shaped the New
Kingdom of Egypt by taking various useful steps and helped Egypt reach its previous glory. He
changed the entire Egyptian culture and politics and turned the New Kingdom of Egypt to a new
level. The Egyptian civilization started to prosper under Pharaoh Akhenaten and the Egyptian
people lived with harmony and peace under his reign.