Aten increasingly came to be treated as a deity, and in the early New Kingdom solar hymns, it was increasingly closely connected with the sun god, whether Ra or Amun.

The Aten attained particular importance under Amenhotep III, who reigned for 38 years in the early fourteenth century BC, when Egypt was at a peak of power and prosperity. Amenhotep's personal name means "Amun is satisfied", and while he built monuments to many deities across Egypt, he especially concentrated on Amun's temples in Thebes.