Nefertiti: The Mistress of Egypt
The gratifying story behind Egypt's most lascivious-looking queen.
Even after 3,000 years, Queen Nefertiti of Egypt continues to fascinate modern readers with her drop-dead gorgeous looks. Her name means “the beautiful woman has come.” And, if her bust is to believed, she certainly was a paragon of feminine beauty. She had perfect, almond-shaped eyes, whose lids were accented by an attractive jet-black eye lining. She had a long pleasantly symmetrical nose bisecting her womanly face. Her thick, protruding red lips formed a regally serene smile. Her fleshy cheeks appeared all the more desirable due to touches of light-brown cosmetic make-up. Her healthy skin exuded a sensual, tannish tone—not too dark, not too light. Her soft, squarish-round head stood atop a long, towering neck. The reign of Nefertiti and her husband Akhenaten was a turning point in Egyptian history. The amorous couple overthrew the old pantheon of pagan gods, imposing themselves and their absolute rule over all their subjects. Known as the Mistress of Egypt, she was equal parts queen, priestess, wife, mother, political revolutionary, and beauty icon.
“A beautiful woman has come”
Nefertiti’s origins are unclear, but she probably descended from the Egyptian Pharaoh Ay, the successor of King Tut. It is possible that she was even the cousin or sister of her husband, King Akhenaten. Many of Egypt’s rulers married family members. She married Akhenaten when she was aged 15. The couple ruled as equals from 1353 to 1336 BC. They had six daughters together, as well as a possible son. The Gempaalen complex at Karnak was devoted to Nefertiti. Records hold that they staged an elaborate festival in the temple during the third year of their reign. Artwork of the Amarna period show that the Queen and her husband were inseparable. In some scenes, the two are shown kissing. Scholars tend to think that the two had a genuine romance, because such amorous depictions were very uncommon for the pharaohs of Egypt. Nefertiti was faithful to her husband, although Akhenaten was known to have fathered children with other women. King Tut himself may have been a lovechild of Akhenaten’s extramarital liaisons.
Reign with Akhenaten
During her reign, Nefertiti held many different royal titles. Hereditary Princess, Great of Praises, Sweet of Love, Lady of Grace, Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Lady of the Two Lands are just a few of them. Inscriptions suggest that Nefertiti was one of the most powerful women in Egyptian history. She was heavily involved in nearly all aspects of the royal court. She held the rank of high priestess to the god Aten, meaning that the beauty queen was also a conduit of divinity. The doll-faced woman was central to the religious practices of her husband’s new religion. In art, the Mistress of Egypt was often depicted wearing a pharaoh’s crown, suggesting that she was a co-equal with her husband. It is possible that, after the death of Akhenaten, she may have been a regent for their son King Tut. Unusual for women, there are portrayals of Nefertiti striking at foreign enemies in combat. When Akhenaten acceded the throne of Egypt, he inherited a prosperous and booming kingdom. Together with Nefertiti, he changed the society in radical ways. The government religion became worship of the Sun. The god Amun was replaced with the god Aten. A new capital was established at Amarna. The old deities were phased out; the temples were closed down, and the priests were forced to convert. Nefertiti and her husband became the sole priests of Egyptian religion. None of this was popular at all. When Akhenaten embarked on an extensive campaign to wipe out the old gods of Egypt, many people were enraged. The kingdom sunk into debt. Akhenaten died not too long after.
Mistaken identity
After 16 years of rule with her husband, Nefertiti simply disappears from the historical record. What happened to her? Because Atenism was deeply unpopular, Nefertiti and her husband were deliberately stripped out of Egypt’s records of the time. When the tomb of Amenhotep II was excavated in 1898, three mummies were discovered behind a hidden wall. Located in the Valley of the Kings, the tomb was discovered to contain a mummy of a king and a young lady, whom archeologists suspected of being Nefertiti. Over a century later, in 2010, Egyptian archeologist Zahi Hawass, who is Egypt’s Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, announced the results of a series of DNA tests that showed the mummy was actually Nefertiti’s sister. The mummy was identified as the mother of King Tut. The question seemed settled until 2013, when French Egyptologist Mark Gabolde disputed Hawass’ conclusions. Gabolde claimed the mummy was Nefertiti. If correct, this would mean that King Tut was not Nefertiti’s son.
Busted
In 1912, German archaeologists led by Ludwig Borchardt found the now-famous sculpture of Nefertiti. Under a license from Egypt’s government, they took it back to Germany. At the time, Egypt was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, but it was ruled by the British. Egypt’s Antiquities Department at the time was being ruled by yet another colonial power: the French. By 1913, the bust was on display at Berlin’s Neues Museum. After the Nazis took power, they seized the Nefertiti bust. Hitler himself allegedly declared, “I will never relinquish the head of the queen.” After the Allied occupation of Germany, US troops brought the Egyptian bust to a museum in West Berlin. In 2009, it was returned to the Neues Museum, which had finally been rebuilt after being bombed in WWII. Egypt’s government claims ownership over the bust, resulting in an ongoing dispute with Germany. The famous Nefertiti bust is the subject of intense controversy over its authenticity. It was sculpted by a man named Thutmose. According to legend, he was so infatuated with her, but when she rejected him, he intentionally left one of the eyes blank. This was because she could not “see” his love-smitten passion for her. Using CT scans of the famous 3,400 year old statue, scientists were able to look at the Queen’s actual mummy face. Differences included a bump on the nose ridge, wrinkles on the cheeks and near the corners of the mouth, and less depth at the corners of the eyelids. This has led scholars to conclude that the famous bust is an idealized portrait, not a totally realistic one.
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