William Durand-Poole

I think they're striking.

I mean, they really are.

And new and fresh.

Absolutely.

With their elongated skulls and so forth.

Made out of pink granite very often.

Yeah, absolutely.

You could say aliens as well, right?

I do find them beautiful, but disturbing at the same time, you know?

So what's going on with Akhenaten's body then in reality?

So, so much ink has been spilled on this, as you can imagine.

So people thought, for instance, he suffered from various diseases, you know, in which fat deposits were different or there were skeleton deformities or whatever there may be.

I don't think any of that applies because we're thinking here, we have to look at Akhenaten always with theological eyes.

What Akhenaten is trying to do here, if he's getting rid of all the other deities, okay, what does he do then with the great female principles of Egyptian religion, Isis, Nephthys, Shu, Tefnut, all these great goddess types, you know?

But what he does, I think, is he brings them all into his body.

So he is deliberately kind of sexually ambiguous in that way.

His body emphasizes both the male and the female within himself, because it is himself that's the most important thing in Akhenaten's world.

So he didn't look like that, you're saying?

I don't think so.

No, I don't think so at all.