Queen Nefertiti. Who is she? What did she do? Question asked by many, Queen Nefertiti is a woman who walked hand in hand with her husband Pharaoh Akhenaten through his reign. Some would argue that a woman’s place is behind her husband and not beside him. Many people have their own opinions about Nefertiti, that she was all beauty and no brains. Contrary to most peoples' beliefs she was undoubtedly a very intelligent woman who stood on her own. She was a powerful leader and was adored by many. Though there were some troubling times during her reign as queen, she managed to accomplish a lot. Queen Nefertiti is a woman who has no beginning or end.
One of the first things about Nefertiti is the meaning of her name “A beautiful woman has come”
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which is none short of the truth since she was undoubtedly a beautiful woman. An article on Nefertiti deflects on how she was a non-factor until Ludwig Borchardt, a German archaeologist who happened to stumble across the Nefertiti bust while on an expedition in the ruins of Amarna (“Nefertiti”, 2010). Since the discovery of her bust, some archaeologist has been trying to uncover her past and find out who she was. Nefertiti was born at Thebes, Egypt, there’s no proof or whereabouts of her parents. It is said that some think she may be the daughter or niece of Ay, who was a recorder keeper for King Amenhotep III (“Nefertiti Biography”, n.d.). The only relative that Nefertiti had been said to be a sister named Mutnodjmet (Tyldesley, 2017). At the age of fourteen, she married Amenhotep IV, who became king after his father’s Amenhotep III death. At the age of her marriage, her husband to be was only a year older than her (“Nefertiti Biography”, n.d.). Moreover, Queen Nefertiti and Husband Pharaoh Amenhotep IV reigned together through 1353 – 1336 B.C.
and during their earliest years of reigning together her husband decides to change the ancient religion that has been worshipped for centuries to a new religion called Aten “The Sun God”. Instead of worshiping more than one god, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV thought it would be best to worship “One” god (“Nefertiti”, 2010). Not to mention Akhenaton said, “Aten is the greatest of all Egyptian gods and the only one who should be worshiped” (“Nefertiti”, 2017). During Amenhotep IV fifth year reign he decided to change his name to Akhenaton. As well as Akhenaton changing his name Nefertiti changed her name to Neferneferuaten, which means “Beautiful are the beauties of Aten, a Beautiful woman has come” (“Nefertiti”, 2010). Nefertiti was not your ordinary queen, she was by her husband side through it all. She was not secondary to her husband, she was hand and hand with …show more content…
him. Nefertiti was accompanying her husband through all rituals acts, daily worship and making offerings.
In ancient Egypt, this would be considered taboo because this is all the things that the pharaohs should be doing not the queen. Akhenaton didn’t care what others had to say he held his wife as an equal. In addition to, letting his wife stand alongside him and making some decision herself and believing in Aten, the two got received a lot of backlash that caused Akhenaton to move the royal family to el-Amarna (“Political roles and contribution”, n.d.). During ten years of reigning together they had six children, which all were daughters. According to Tyldesley, the three elder daughters were born in Thebes, Egypt while the youngest three were born in el-Amarna (2017). When Pharaoh Akhenaton moved his family to el-Amarna, he named the new capital after “Akhenaton” himself. This was meant to honor their god “Aten” (“History.com Staff”, 2010).
With a great king stands a great queen, and queen Nefertiti was that through her reign with her husband. She had many accomplishments during her reign, which included the move to el-Amarna when she helped her husband manage his city and for that she was worshipped and adored by many. In addition to, helping her husband the people of el-Amarna praised her for her intelligence and by that she gained power. Nefertiti second accomplishment was when she had a statue of herself made so that her people could adore and remember how beautiful she was
(“Accomplishments”, n.d.). According to Tyldesley, “during Akhenaton 12th regional year reign over his new city that Nefertiti had vanished” (2017). In fact, some think she may have died but, there’s no record of her death and no possible evidence that she was buried in the royal tomb in el-Amarna. There has been some speculation that she might have assumed an identity of a man to become the next Pharaoh (“Nefertiti - Beautiful and Powerful Queen of Ancient Egypt”, 2017). No one really knows what had happened to her, she just vanished on the face of the earth. To tell the truth, that’s why her story fascinates me so that someone of her power and beauty can just disappear without a trace. In conclusion, Nefertiti was a very beautiful woman inside and out and had the love of her people. Even though her demise, she still manages to intrigue us with her beauty. She has proven that you can have it all, beauty, brains and a wonderful husband that treated her equally as him. Nefertiti has gone down in history as one of Egypt’s famous queens, even though there’s no recorded of her death or how she died, Nefertiti will remain to me as a woman with no beginning or end.
The fundamental features of the Warrior Pharaoh image during New Kingdom Egypt included; leading his soldiers into battle and returning in victory, attacking the enemy in his horse-drawn chariot which was adopted from the Hyksos, wearing war regalia , larger than life expectations and finally offering the spoils of war to the god Amun, the inspiration of his victory. Due to the absence of the their pharaohs on military campaigns, the Queens began to play a more prominent role within the New Kingdom Egypt’s society, however this was a short term consequence of the civil war as it was only necessary when the Pharaoh left to go to war or on a campaign. The rise in roles and prominences amongst the Queen’s slowly decreased towards the end of the war until Hatshepsut comes into power. After this the Queen’s involvement seems to disappear and we begin to no longer hear about
King tut was eight or nine when he took over as king. When he took the crown he was married to his queen. In Egypt it was normal for kings to marry their sister or half sister. With King Tut he married his half sister. It is believed that when King Tut was crowned king he was heavily influenced by his great uncle Ay. When a new king comes in to rule they have to go through coronation, meaning to be presented with multiple crowns. The most important ones were red, white, double crown, blue crown and the nemes headdress. The king had to visors, the highest officials in the government, who were in charge of the upper and lower parts of Egypt. (Hawass 29-56)
Ancient Egypt is home to one of the greatest female pharaoh. Queen Hatshepsut. She was the first female pharaoh and did great things.
After Hatshepsut 's death, Thutmose III destroyed or defaced her monuments, erased many of her inscriptions and constructed a wall around her obelisks. Thutmose III did that to take the credit for all of Queen Hatshepsut’s work in 22 year period that she reigned. It was unlikely, for women to be king and Thutmose III took all her work as his own work. Though past Egyptologists held that it was merely the queen’s ambition that drove her, more recent scholars have suggested that the move might have been due to a political crisis, such as a threat from another branch of the royal family, and that Hatshepsut may have been acting to save the throne for her stepson. Hatshepsut was only the third woman to become pharaoh in 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, and the first to attain the full power of the position. Cleopatra, who also exercised such power, would rule some 14 centuries later. There have been rumors and stories about Thutmose III wanted to overrule Queen Hatshepsut reign. It was his reign actually, but Thutmose III was a child and could not rule Egypt. Thutmose I and Ahmose rulers of Egypt, and was the mother and father of Hatshepsut. As people talked back then Queen Hatshepsut was the first female to become Egypt’s king. She ruled for over 22 years of reign in peace. She was married to Thutmose II, and had
During the time of Ancient Egypt, having strong Pharaohs was essential to the maintenance and growth of the civilization, as the Pharaohs were believed to be living Gods. Although leadership of Ancient Egypt was often male dominated, there were admirable female Pharaohs who successfully gained power and left behind a positive legacy; one woman to achieve this was Hatshepsut, meaning ‘foremost of female nobles’. Her innovation and determination allowed her to maintain her position of Pharaoh for about twenty years (1479-1458 BCE). Hatshepsut was considered to be a very successful leader because of her confidence and ambition, magnificent building projects, and establishment of a strong trading network.
When an Egyptian Pharaoh is pictured, it is normally a person with a very elegant crown and well-designed clothing, but most importantly a Pharaoh is depicted as a man. In the history of Egypt, though, some Pharaohs were actually women, just like the case of Hatshepsut. There were other women rulers of Egypt, and when asked which one is most recognized, it is probably Cleopatra, but Hatshepsut deserves just as much respect as Cleopatra for the way she obtained the title of Pharaoh. She not only broke the traditional laws of Egypt when becoming Pharaoh, but Hatshepsut let nothing stop her from becoming a future Pharaoh of Egypt. Developing into a Pharaoh was not a simple task, but to become Pharaoh “Hatshepsut made the most extraordinary move ever made by an Egyptian, or any other woman” (Wells 185). The move to follow her dreams were filled with lots of struggles, and the major struggle that was in her way was being a woman when most Pharaohs are men. Another struggle was her stepson Tuthmosis III, and his journey to become the next Pharaoh. The last struggle was to keep her legacy known after her death to show the Pharaoh she really was. Through all the battles to become Pharaoh, Hatshepsut stayed strong to become a person many women could not be in that specific time period. Hatshepsut, no doubt, had struggles through her destination of becoming a Pharaoh, but she fought through each battle in becoming one of the most known and popular Pharaohs of Egypt.
After her father’s death when she was 12, Hatshepsut became the queen of Egypt when she married her half-brother and he became the Pharaoh Thutmose II. He was the son of her father and one of his second wives. During the reign of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut assumed the traditional role of queen and principal wife. During their marriage, Hatshepsut and Thutmose II were not able to produce a male heir but had a daughter named Neferure. Because she was the first and main wife and queen of Thutmose II, when he died, she proclaimed herself the fifth Pharaoh while denying the old Kings son, her nephew.
Hatshepsut was the first female pharaoh of Egypt. She reigned between 1473 and 1458 B.C. Her name means “foremost of noblewomen.” (O. Jarus, The First Female Pharaoh, 2013) Some sources state that queen Hatshepsut was the first great woman in recorded history; according to Jennifer Lawless she was the forerunner of such figures as Cleopatra, Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I. (J. Lawless, Personalities of the past. Pg. 33-34), yet other sources testify. Hatshepsut came to power at the death of her husband, Thutmose Il. She denied her nephew's claim to the throne and stated Amun-Ra had spoken and declared that she would be Pharoah. “She dressed like Pharoah, even wearing a fake beard to give traditional image of a King to her people who accepted her without issue.” (R. Stevenson, Hatshepsut; the Woman Who Was King, 2009) Despite...
Was she the archetypal wicked stepmother, an unnatural and scheming woman ?of the most virile character who would deliberately abuse a position of trust to steal the throne from a defenceless child? (Gardiner, 1961:184)? Or was she ?an experienced and well-meaning woman who ruled amicably alongside her stepson, steering her country through twenty peaceful, prosperous years who deserves to be commemorated among the great monarchs of Egypt? (Budge, 1902:I)? According to biographer and historian Joyce Tyldesley, Queen or as she would prefer to be remembered, King Hatchepsut became the female embodiment of a male role, whose reign was a carefully balanced period of internal peace, foreign exploration and monument building (Tyldesley, 1996:1). This study will show that it was Hatshepsut the Pharaoh?s devotion to the god Amen and her protection of the maat of 18th Dynasty Egypt that allowed her to forge her successful New Kingdom regime.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six daughters, the elder three being born at Thebesm and the younger three at Amarna: Meritaten (Beloved of the Aten'), Meketaten (Protected by the Aten'), Ankhesepaaten (Living through the Aten'), Neferneferuaten (Exquisite Beauty of The Sun Disc'), Neferneferure (Exquisite Beauty of Re'), and Setepenre (Chosen of Re') (Tyl It is possible that she also had sons, although no record has been found of this. It was a practice in Egyptian art not to portray the male heirs as children. Possibly, she may have been the mother of Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh who succeeded to the throne at the age of eleven and died nine years later (Sporre 2000). Nefertiti's Role Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of King Amenhotep IV better known as Akhenaten, joined her husband in worship of a new religion that celebrated the power of the sun disk Aten.
In Ancient Egypt there were over 29 Kings and Pharaohs and over 5 Queens. Some of the most famous kings and queens were: Ramses II, Ramses III, King Tut, Cleopatra, and Nefertiti.
She is famous for all her ancient artifacts, mostly found in Egyptian Museum of Berlin and Egyptian Museum of Munich in Germany. The treasures were found in the pyramids that Amanishakheto built in Meroe by Giuseppe Ferlini in 1834 (Barger). Her treasures include ten bracelets, two armbands, nine shield rings and 67 signet rings (Y, Doctor). Those were just some of her ancient artifacts. Most of her artifacts were made from gold. Her palace is the largest treasure found. It’s called Wad Ban Naqa (61 meters long) and it includes 60 rooms and most of her treasures (Dawson). This rich warrior queen was wealthy but very
Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt during the 18th dynasty, was one of a small handful of female pharaohs. Despite her many achievements, her reign is most remembered for the fact that she was a woman. Her unique story has been a source for dispute among scholars, which has led to a number of conflicting views. The small amount of Hatshepsut’s life that has been documented does not allow us to see the more intimate details of her life. Historians have a broad range of opinions on her, but one thing is certain: her reign provided Egypt with a period of peace and prosperity after 100 years of foreign rule. There are a number of theories involving Hatshepsut’s personal and public life.
The Arabs knew her as Queen Bilquis, the Ethiopians called her Makeda, for the Jews and the Christians she is the Queen of Sheba. For the Ethiopians, her story represents the fundamental myth of their civilization. The rich sovereign of the kingdom of Saba, who came to know through an Ethiopian merchant of the immense wisdom of King Solomon, undertook a long journey to the holy city of Jerusalem. Meyer described the queen of Sheba in his journal "Nefertiti/Queen of Sheba"
Cleopatra VII, one of the most renowned female ruler in history to be last the last one of her family line of Pharaohs. The myths and stories that surrounded her life have made her the subject of books, movies, and plays. Cleopatra VII has been fascinated people throughout the years, but has been misunderstood by all of them.