While the idea of a chilling, supernatural secret hidden beneath the sands of Egypt is the stuff of movies and folklore, the true history of ancient Egypt is filled with real and often dramatic mysteries that were deliberately buried. One of its darkest secrets isn’t a curse or a hidden monster, but a story of a powerful pharaoh who was systematically erased from history.

This secret belongs to Akhenaten, a pharaoh who ruled during the 18th Dynasty. His “crime” was a radical religious revolution. He abandoned Egypt’s traditional pantheon of gods in favor of a single deity, the sun disc Aten, and moved the capital to a new city, Amarna. This dramatic shift was so reviled by the priests and the public that after his death, his successors launched a massive campaign of vengeance against his memory.

For centuries, Akhenaten’s name was chiseled from monuments, his temples were dismantled, and he was completely removed from the official king lists. This act of “damnatio memoriae”—the condemnation of memory—was a deliberate attempt to make it as if he had never existed. It was only through the tireless work of modern archaeologists that this “dark secret” was uncovered, revealing a hidden and tumultuous chapter of Egyptian history and the incredible power of those who sought to control the narrative of the past.