The Sun Queen

Joyce Tyldesley traces the life of Nefertiti, consort of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, who is Ancient Egypt’s most iconic and, some would say, most beautiful female ruler

- Joyce Tyldesley

More than 3000 years after her death, Queen Nefertiti is widely celebrated as one of the ancient world’s most alluring and powerful women. Her face, preserved by a hauntingly beautiful bust, is a familiar sight, and has inspired generations of artists, poets, playwrights, cosmetic surgeons and tattoo artists. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to discover just how little we know about the lady herself.

Nefertiti was the consort, or ‘Great Wife’, of the ‘heretic pharaoh’ Akhenaten, who ruled Late Bronze Age Egypt towards the end of the 18th Dynasty (circa 1352–1336 BC). She lived, as is said, in interesting times. Her husband acceded to the throne as Amenhotep IV (literally ‘The God Amen is Satisfied’) but soon after his coronation, in tribute to an ancient but obscure solar god known as ‘the Aten’, he changed his name to Akhenaten (meaning ‘Living Spirit of the Aten’). Within five years he had radically simplified Egyptian state religion, replacing the many hundreds of gods with the Aten. The object of his worship was the bright light of the sun, rather than the sun itself.