Queen Nefertiti Who Was She The chief wife

Queen Nefertiti

Who Was She? • • The chief wife of Akhenaton, who was pharaoh from 1353 to 1335 B. C. Had six daughters Was stepmother to Tutankhamen Symbol of Beauty Her name means “the beautiful (or perfect) woman has come”suggests she was a foreigner Some think she was the daughter of a government official, a man named Ay, who later become pharaoh after Tutankhamen died She and her husband together tried to establish monotheism by worshiping the sun disk god, Aton

Nefertiti in Artwork Painted limestone statue of Akhenaton and Nefertiti Little was known about Nefertiti until this famous sculpture was found in 1912 by German excavators in Amara.

• How Did She Die? • • To see an artist’s rendition, go to: http: //dsc. discovery. com/co nvergence/nefertiti/face/fac e. html Because she and her husband tried to erase all the other gods, she made a lot of enemiesraises the question of whether she died naturally After Akhenaten’s reign ended, the Egyptians reverted back to their old religion- erased historical records of Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s mummy was mutilated so she would not be able to live in the afterlife What Did She Really Look Like?

Sources • Yakutchik, Maryalice. “Who Was Nefertiti? ” Discovery Channel. 2005 http: //dsc. discovery. com/convergence/nefe rtiti/history. html (4 Oct. 2005) Lesko, Leanard. “Nefertiti. ” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2003

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