It probably took at least two years to build Akhetaton. It was during
the sixth year of Akhenaton's reign that he ordered all Egyptians and
subject peoples--Nubians and Asiatics--to serve Aton alone. Statues of
the old gods were ordered destroyed; their reliefs were to be erased,
and their names blotted out. Two years later--Akhenaton's eighth--the
transfer of the capital from Thebes to Akhetaton was complete.
There are evidences of great haste in the construction of the buildings.
Often naturalistic pictures of birds and vegetation painted on plaster
walls and floors cover shoddy workmanship. Houses were built of mud
brick, but palaces and temples were built of stone. An inscription
attributed to the architect Bek at Aswan states that stone was quarried
there "for the great and mighty monuments of the king in the house of
Aton in Akhetaton."