Now, one of the most remarkable events in Egyptian history was the so-called apostasy of Amen-hetep IV., some hundred and fifty years after Thothmes III. In the time of Thothmes III. the alliance between the royal and the sacerdotal power was of the closest, and in no time of the world's history have priests been more richly endowed than were then the priests of Amen. Not content, however, with their sacred functions, they aimed at political power so obviously that Thothmes IV. and Amen-hetep III., to check their intentions, favoured the cults and priesthoods of Annu and other cities of the north. Amen-hetep III. and his son, Amen-hetep IV., also looked for alliances out of Egypt altogether, and entered into diplomatic relations with the princes of Asia, including even the king of Babylon. This brought him and the priests to open warfare. He replied to their anger by proscribing the cult of Amen, and the name of Amen was effaced from the monuments; still the priestly party was strong enough to make it unpleasant for the king in Thebes; and, to deal them yet another blow, he quitted that city and settled at Tell el-Amarna, at the same time, according to the statement of M. Virey, reviving an old Heliopolitan cult. He took for divine protection the solar disk _Aten_, "which was one of the most ancient forms of one of the most ancient gods of Egypt, Rā of Heliopolis."[92] Now let us say that the time of Amen-hetep IV., according to the received authorities, was about 1450 B.C. The lines of the "Temple of the Sun" at Tell el-Amarna are to be gathered from Lepsius' map, reproduced in the illustration on the next page. The orientation is 13° north of west.[93] This gives us a declination of 11° north, and the star Spica at its setting would be visible in the temple. [Illustration: THE TEMPLES AT TELL EL-AMARNA. A, The Aten (Spica) Temple; B, the Set Temple.] Still the light would not enter it _axially_ if the orientation is correct. This would have happened in 2000 B.C., that is, 600 years before the time of Amen-hetep IV. This is a point which Egyptologists must discuss; it is quite certain that such a pair of temples as those of which Lepsius gives us the plans could not have been completely built in his short reign, and they would not perhaps have been commenced on _heretical_ lines in any previous reign during the Eighteenth dynasty. They must therefore have been commenced before 1700 B.C., perhaps in the Seventeenth dynasty. In any case they were certainly finished by Khu-en-Aten. Professor Flinders Petrie has been good enough, in reply to an inquiry, to state his opinion that the temple was entirely built by Khu-en-Aten. Should this be confirmed, it may have been oriented directly to the sun, on the day named, or was probably built parallel to some former temple, for traces of other temples are shown on Lepsius' plan, and I presume Khu-en-Aten is not supposed to have built all of them.