The controversial pharaoh Akhenaten had decided that all the gods of Egypt no longer existed– there was only one god, the Aten, and it was the sun itself. He abandoned Thebes for a brand-new capital city specially built for the Aten, and spent his days there writing poems to his exclusive god and basically ignoring all his pharaonic duties.

Back at Thebes, the public was growing resentful and uneasy. The vizier Ay urged Akhenaten to appoint a co-regent (another pharaoh to rule simultaneously) who would go back to Thebes and keep the people in line. Smenkhkare, who was probably one of Akhenaten's sons with a minor queen Kiya, was married to one of Akhenaten's daughters, Merytaten, and together they returned to Thebes to hopefully ease the escalating tensions.

The historical record gets a bit confusing here, because at around the same time Akhenaten's main queen Nefertiti is no longer mentioned and presumed dead. Then, within a just a couple years, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, and Merytaten are all inexplicably dead too. The next person in line to inherit the throne was Smenkhkare's brother Tutankhaten, who was also the son of Akhenaten and his lesser queen Kiya.

Smenkhkare's mummy was believed to be found in an unfinished tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV55). Inside was a heavily damaged mummiform wooden coffin decorated with the "rishi" (feather) style inlays that were very popular during the Amarna period. The mummy, the coffin, and the tomb are particularly mysterious for several reasons:

1. The gold face is broken off the wooden layer underneath, just below the eyes, so we can't tell who is supposed to be inside
2. The cartouches on the outside are hacked away in an attempt to rob the person of an afterlife, making it further difficult to determine who it belongs to (this made some people suspect that it is Akhenaten)
3. The hieroglyphic phrases on the outside of the coffin refer to the owner as a "her" but the person inside is a male
4. Scientific tests on the body support the identity of Smenkhkare– the age is right, and the tissues match Tutankhamun as a brother
5. Canopic jars crafted for Akhenaten's lesser queen Kiya were found in the tomb with the mummy... but there isn't a single thing with Smenkhkare's name on it!

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