Around 1332 B.C.E., the same year that Tutankhaten took power, he married Ankhesenamun, his half-sister and the daughter of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. While the young couple had no surviving children, it is known they had two daughters, both likely to have been stillborn.
This exhibit featured Tutankhamun's predecessors from the 18th Dynasty, including Hatshepsut and Akhenaten, but did not include the golden death mask.
| Tutankhamun |
|---|
| show Royal titulary |
| Consort | Ankhesenamun (half-sister) |
| Children | 2 (317a and 317b) |
| Father | KV55 mummy, identified as most likely Akhenaten |
Incestuous alliances were common among Egypt's royalty, said renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. “A king could marry his sister and his daughter because he is a god, like Iris and Osiris, and this was a habit only among kings and queens,†Hawass told a news conference at Cairo's Egyptian Museum.
She died while being tortured by her husband, who had discovered her monotheism and retaliated to her rebellion against his tyranny.
Asiya.
| Holy Women Asiya |
|---|
| Spouse(s) | Pharoah |
| Children | Musa (adoptive son) |
| Parent(s) | Muzahim (father) |
After he died, King Tut was mummified according to Egyptian religious tradition, which held that royal bodies should be preserved and provisioned for the afterlife. By the time he discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter had been excavating Egyptian antiquities for three decades.
There is, however, no evidence that Carter enjoyed any close relationships throughout his life, and he never married nor had children.
Another theory on Tutankhamun's death suggests that he was murdered by General Horemheb, a man of low birth who became one of Akhenaten's closest advisors. Under Tutankhamun, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army and deputy of the king. Following the demise of Tutankhamun and Ay, Horemheb became pharaoh.
It is thought that Ankhesenamun was only thirteen years old when she married Tutankhamun and he was only eight years old. Despite this, they seem to have been a close couple who were depicted enjoying each others company – possibly because they had grown up together and so enjoyed a genuine friendship.
Ay, also spelled Aye, (flourished 14th century bce), king of ancient Egypt (reigned 1323–19 bce) of the 18th dynasty, who rose from the ranks of the civil service and the military to become king after the death of Tutankhamen.
Plague hit Egypt during Akhenaten's approximately 17-year reign (1353 to 1335 B.C.). So, Akhenaten married his eldest daughter, Meritaten. Then, he had the next eldest daughter, Ankhesenpaaten, marry Tut so that when Tut became king, she would be queen (it was common for Egyptian royalty to marry within the family).
The aged Vizier Ay sidelined Horemheb's claim to the throne and instead succeeded Tutankhamun, probably because Horemheb was in Asia with the army at the time of Tutankhamun's death. Further, Tutankhamun's queen, Ankhesenamun, refused to marry Horemheb, a commoner, and so make him king of Egypt.
Anck-Su-Namun was the imperial concubine of Pharaoh Seti I. She began an affair with the High Priest of Osiris, Imhotep, which was forbidden because no other men were allowed to touch her. When the affair was discovered by Seti l, she helped murder him and committed suicide.
"Nefertiti married perhaps one of the first monotheists in history and the film will tell their story, which logically enough should be set in Egypt," said Heyman on a brief visit to Cairo over the weekend. "One can find in the Old Testament that Moses and Nefertiti had a relationship," he added.
| Nefertiti |
|---|
| Died | c. 1330 BC |
| Spouse | Akhenaten |
| Issue | Meritaten Meketaten Ankhesenamun Neferneferuaten Tasherit Neferneferure Setepenre |
| Names Neferneferuaten Nefertiti |
Nefertari was one of several Queens of Rameses II, 1290-1224BC. [Her name is sometimes spelled Nofretari, and she is NOT the same person as the more famous Queen Nefertiti, with whom she is sometimes confused.]
Missing left eyeBorchardt assumed that the quartz iris had fallen out when Thutmose's workshop fell into ruin. The missing eye led to speculation that Nefertiti may have suffered from an ophthalmic infection and lost her left eye, though the presence of an iris in other statues of her contradicted this possibility.
Her reign was a time of tremendous cultural upheaval, as Akhenaten reoriented Egypt's religious and political structure around the worship of the sun god Aten. Nefertiti is best known for her painted sandstone bust, which was rediscovered in 1913 and became a global icon of feminine beauty and power.
Nefertiti was a queen of Egypt and wife of King Akhenaton, who played a prominent role in changing Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion to one that was monotheistic, worshipping the sun god known as Aton. An elegant portrait bust of Nefertiti now in Berlin is perhaps one of the most well-known ancient sculptures.
