Aten was the physically visible sun, the yellow sphere in the sky that can nourish life or scorch the land. As such worship of the Aten did not require the equipment and architectural elements found in other Egyptian temples.

The Aten-disk was venerated as a form of Ra or Horus from the late Middle Kingdom onward and was not, as it is sometimes believed, "invented" during the New Kingdom by the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep IV Akhenaten (1350-1334 BC).

However, beginning with Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, Aten enjoyed a higher level of worship, possibly in reaction to the growing power of the priesthood of Amun.

During Akhenaten's reign, for reasons not entirely clear in the historic record, Akhenaten declared all other gods invalid and their priests useless. He ordered Egypt to worship himself as the "Sole One of Aten", who would then take the people's prayers to Aten - his 'Father'. (Akhenaten did not order the people to worship Aten; the texts state that only he was qualified to do this as Aten's intermediary).

Akhenaten's religious reforms did not represent monotheism as has been often suggested, since his 'destruction' of other Gods was selective. Akhenaten

offers to Ma'at in some friezes, and some of his hymns refer to "Ra-Horus Who is in Aten".

His reforms did not long outlast him. A backlash against the Atenist movement by the priesthood of Amun-Ra after Akhenaten's death resulted in the loss of much of this god's information.

Aten's temples were considerably different then most cult temples of ancient Egypt. They were, of course, solar temples, with the essential elements consisting of a small obelisk on a high base and an altar. Though solar temples had been built during the Old Kingdom, the worship of the Aten did not require the equipment and architectural elements found in these older establishments, with the exception of the altar. There was no need for a naos because there is no deity to be sheltered.