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Ancient Egyptians - Nefertiti |
Overview of the Life of Queen Nefertiti (Consort of Akhenaten)
Facts about Queen Nefertiti Nefertiti Ancient Egyptian Queen - Nefertiti Fact Sheet Fact 1 on Nefertiti: Her name means "the beautiful one has come" and thousands of years later she is still acknowledged as one of the most beautiful queens of ancient Egypt. Fact 2 on Nefertiti: There is scant confirmed information about her early life but she was the daughter of Ay and their family home was in the city of Akhmin. As the daughter of a noble and wealthy family she would have received and excellent education. Fact 3 on Nefertiti: She married Amenhotep, the son of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Her husband would change his name to Akhenaten. Fact 4 on Nefertiti: Her husband assumed the throne of Egypt in 1351BC and they would reign over Egypt for 17 years until 1334 BC. Fact 5 on Nefertiti: During his upbringing her husband had experienced the influence of foreign ideas and different culture at the royal court of his father which had a profound effect on his religious ideas and outlook. Fact 6 on Nefertiti: Within less than five years the king, supported by his queen, initiated a completely new religion in ancient Egypt that was tantamount to a religious revolution. Fact 7 on Nefertiti: The ancient Egyptians adhered to a polytheistic religion, meaning the worship of many gods. These gods were worshipped in their different cult centers and the main gods were constantly changing depending on the rulers and the powers of the different sects of priests. Changes in the worship of gods might be also caused by a victory, or a defeat, in war. Fact 8 on Nefertiti: The major god worshipped at the time was the sun god Atum or Atum-Ra. The most important gods of ancient Egypt had political backing which led to the building of magnificent temples, large followings and extremely wealthy cult centers. Fact 9 on Nefertiti: The power of the High Priests of Amun, who were based at Thebes, was so great that it rivalled the power of the pharaoh. The temples of the priests of the Amun had over 80,000 people working for them and owned massive amounts of land, cattle and hundreds of ships. Fact 10 on Nefertiti: Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti initiated a religious revolution based on monotheism, the worship of just one god, called Aten. continued... Ancient Egyptian Queen - Nefertiti Fact Sheet Nefertiti Ancient Egyptian Queen - Nefertiti Fact Sheet Fact 11 on Nefertiti: Attempts were made to ban the worship of any of the old gods. They built a new city called Amarna and demanded that people of Thebes moved there. The temples of the old gods including Amun were closed. Akhenaten and his queen alienated both the Egyptian people and the powerful priests of Amun. Fact 12 on Nefertiti: Amarna was a fabulous new city dedicated to the new, sole god Aten. In the sixth year of their reign both the Pharaoh and his queen changed their names in honor of the Aten. The queen was called Neferneferu-Aten, "Exquisite Beauty of the Sun Disk" and Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaten. Fact 13 on Nefertiti: Even a new art style was developed, referred to as the 'Armana Period'. Amarna artwork radically changed existing artistic conventions changing from stylised images to naturalistic style. There were no statues to the God Aten as these were viewed as idolatry. Fact 14 on Nefertiti: The pharaoh and his beautiful queen had six daughters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhenspaaten, Neferneferuaten, Neferneferure and Setepenre. But they had no sons. Fact 15 on Nefertiti: Queen Nefertiti attained the power and status of a Pharaoh and was co-ruler with Akhenaten but her influence decreased a little when sons were born to the Pharaoh's other wives, one of whom was Tutankhamun. The kings of Egypt practised Polygamy, meaning having more than one wife at the same time. It was quite acceptable for a pharaoh to have multiple wives ensuring the line of succession. Fact 16 on Nefertiti: The queen arranged for Tutankhamun to marry one of her daughters, Princess Ankhenspaaten. Fact 17 on Nefertiti: One of their daughters, called Maketaten, died in childbirth, and the grief of the couple was Fact 18 on Nefertiti: Following the death of Maketaten the grieving queen left the royal court and retired to a villa called Hat-Aten in Amarna. Fact 19 on Nefertiti: Pharaoh Akhenaten eventually abdicated and a mysterious figure called Smenkhkare (r.1335–1334 BC) assumed the throne of Egypt. Smenkhkare tried to continue with the new religious beliefs and there are theories that the new ruler Smenkhkare was in fact Nefertiti who took the name of Smenkhkare (Nefertiti’s religious name) and the role of pharaoh until Tutankhamun was old enough to rule. Fact 20 on Nefertiti: The religious revolution of Akhenaten ended. The powerful Priests of Amun took control of Egypt. Ancient Egypt reverted to the old religion and Amana was abandoned.The young pharaoh Tutankhamun and his wife Queen Ankhesenamun (later Ankhesenamun) were forced to move to the old capital of Thebes. Fact 21 on Nefertiti: The date of the death of Queen Nefertiti, and the circumstances that surrounded it, are unknown. Fact 22 on Nefertiti: The bust of Nefertiti: In 1912 the ancient Egyptian studio of the sculptor Thutmes was unearthed at Tell El-Amarna. The ancient studio contained the bust of Nefertiti, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. Fact 23 on Nefertiti: The bust of Nefertiti: The limestone bust of Nefertiti has given rise to the tradition that she was one of the most beautiful women of the ancient world.
Ancient Egyptian Queen - Nefertiti Fact Sheet Nefertiti Queen Nefertiti |
