Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt: biography and interesting stories from life. Egyptian queen nefertiti

The name Nefertiti has long been associated with most people with the ideal of female beauty and grace. Plastic surgeons copy the shape of her eyes and face shape for their clients, while fashionistas try to replicate her makeup. However, judging by the mummy found, which may belong to the great queen, her appearance was not so beautiful...

Once upon a time, many years ago, I first saw a bust of Nefertiti and was amazed by her almost alien beauty. Unfortunately, at that time there was little real information in the press - more and more about her husband, the famous heretic pharaoh Akhenaten. Now, after years, you and I can learn much more about it, but there is still very little. We don’t even know where and when she was born, we don’t know how many years she lived and why she died. It’s not surprising - three millennia have passed since then, papyrus scrolls have decayed, stone has crumbled, empires have disappeared without a trace, rivers have changed their courses, and the fact that we know more about Nefertiti than just her name is a miracle in itself.

She was a great queen and bore Akhenaten six daughters. We can name the names of each daughter - Meritaton, Maketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten-tasherit, Nefernefrura and Setepenra, but does listing the names tell us anything about her? Many of her statues and images decorated temples; she was often painted next to her husband, often with her family, and even defeating the enemies of Egypt - this is how only the pharaohs themselves were usually painted.

She reached the pinnacle of power by the 12th year of Akhenaten’s reign, when we read about her in the inscriptions not just as the main wife, but as a co-ruler of her royal husband. Soon after this, her daughter Maketaton died of illness, and literally a year or two later all mentions of the name Nefertiti disappear. A version was put forward - the queen died during a plague epidemic. However, until recently, the main assumption was that Nefertiti simply fell out of favor with the rise of one of the younger wives of Pharaoh Kiya. Historians considered the cause of disgrace to be Nefertiti's inability to give birth to an heir. The pharaoh's next wife after Kiya was his own daughter from Nefertiti Meritaten, and almost all mentions of Kiya were destroyed.

Perhaps this was the daughter's revenge for her mother. But Meritaton herself was unable to give birth to a boy for her father; only mentions of two daughters from this marriage are known. However, speculation about Nefertiti's fall from grace was recently refuted by the discovery in 2012 of a half-erased inscription dating back to the 16th year of Akhenaten's reign (his reign lasted 17 years), which included the following line: “The great wife of the pharaoh, his beloved, mistress of both lands (upper and lower Egypt) Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti." This meant that Nefertiti's status as a great wife (queen) remained unshakable, despite the pharaoh's marriage to Kiya and her own daughter. There is reason to believe that Nefertiti outlived her husband and even reigned for two more years under the name of Pharaoh Neferneferuaten.

With the accession of Akhenaten's heir, Tutankhamun, to the throne, the priesthood began an all-out attack on the legacy of the heretic pharaoh. Temples of Aten were destroyed or abandoned, references to Akhenaten were destroyed, inscriptions were erased, and steles were destroyed. At the same time, the tombs of the pharaoh and his royal wife were probably desecrated or even destroyed.

I inform you - the mummies of Nefertiti and Akhenaten have been found. The destruction of inscriptions on tombs and ritual objects is quite sufficient revenge from the point of view of the priests. After all, their names included mention of the god Aten. They took revenge not so much on the pharaoh as on his god Aten, returning the cult of the old gods. The destruction of the royal mummies themselves, whose divine origin was beyond doubt, is unheard of sacrilege even in relation to the heretic pharaoh.

Joanne Fletcher reported the discovery of Nefertiti's mummy ten years ago. Based on the mummy, a reconstruction of the supposed appearance of Nefertiti was made. I will not talk about the violent reaction of the Egyptological community to this discovery. I will say that many did not agree with her; everyone was looking forward to the results of the DNA examination, to which the Egyptian authorities did not give consent for a long time. It was only in February 2010 that the examination was carried out, but its results were not widely covered in the media. The mummy turned out to be the daughter of Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiya (father and mother of Akhenaten) and the mother of Tutankhamun. Most Egyptologists agreed that the mummy belonged to one of Akhenaten's wives.

Egyptologists interpret these results in different ways - some see this only as confirmation that Nefertiti was her husband’s sister, since her title confirms this, others deny her such an opportunity - after all, Nefertiti is never directly mentioned as the daughter of Amenhotep III. I am inclined to accept the first point of view on this issue, since it is possible that one of Nefertiti’s names is still on the list of the pharaoh’s daughters - we just don’t yet know that this name belongs to her. But that’s not all - DNA analysis of one of the male mummies from the same burial showed that it belongs to the father of Tutankhamun and the son of Amenhotep III, that is, quite likely, Akhenaten himself! This means that Nefertiti nevertheless bore him a son - he became her seventh child.

So, the most famous royal couple in the history of ancient Egypt has been found (with varying degrees of probability). However, in the same 2010, research into the supposed mummy of Nefertiti yielded another unexpected discovery. The mummy was significantly damaged, it was believed, by tomb robbers. The researchers' attention was drawn to the damage to the mummy's head - her cheek, mouth and jaw. The study showed that the wound was inflicted during life and turned out to be fatal. Nefertiti was killed. By whom?

Probably those who benefited from it, who put the young Tutankhamun in power and ruled in his place. This is Akhenaten’s dignitary Ey, who, after the sudden death of the young pharaoh, became a pharaoh himself by marrying his wife Ankhesenamon (Ankhesenpaaton, daughter of Nefertiti).

The story about Nefertiti could be completed here. But research again brings surprises. The famous painted bust of Nefertiti, after a tomography carried out not so long ago, revealed another secret. It turned out that the stone bust, covered with a thin layer of plaster, had undergone minor adjustments. Wrinkles were removed, the shape of the cheekbones was emphasized, and most noticeably, the shape of the nose was changed.

The original sculpture has a slight hump on the nose and a small saddle below it, which makes the tip of the nose slightly snub-nosed. It is these characteristic features that we can observe in the alleged mummy of Nefertiti.

All known sculptures of the queen were found in Thutmose's workshop at Amarna. Usually, when talking about Nefertiti, the material is illustrated with two of the most famous images - the famous bust made of painted limestone and a small head made of quartzite. You and I will be able to see a few more lesser-known statues of our heroine. But that's not all. After all, you wonder if her body was as beautiful as her face?

In the summer of 2003, a scandal broke out. Two Hungarian artists created a nude bronze statue as a "model of Nefertiti's physical beauty," they claimed, based on her actual ancient depictions in reliefs. The reconstructed "body" and the famous bust of the queen were combined and exhibited in a Berlin museum. The Egyptian Antiquities Service, led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, protested, in their opinion, such an image insulted the Egyptian queen, and the treatment of a unique ancient bust was called barbarism, bordering on vandalism.

In fact, the artists who presented the queen in an image close to the canons of modern top models clearly flattered Nefertiti. Judge for yourself, what could a queen, ruler of millions of subjects, who knew no physical effort, no diet, and who moved on a palanquin, look like? Thin legs, fat thighs, a round tummy and a rather large ass are guaranteed with this lifestyle. If we remember Nefertiti’s swan neck stretched forward, then we can also add a stoop to the portrait.

You do not like? Well, don't look at the photos of Nefertiti sculptures and you won't be disappointed. One of them shows the body of a young beauty, slightly covered with a thin transparent fabric. But not everyone knows that there is also a statue of an aged, middle-aged Nefertiti. Time has left marks on her face, her look is tired and sad, but despite all this, she is still beautiful.

Nefertiti means “The Beautiful One has come.” She came into this world and brought her incredible beauty into it. And after three thousand years we still bow our heads before her royal beauty.

Young Lady" from KV35, supposed mummy of Nefertiti

Color photo of the mummy

Reconstruction of the image of Nefertiti from the mummy

Results of a tomographic study of the limestone bust of Nefertiti

Reconstruction of the image of Nefertiti after tomography of the bust

The German bandit looks at his crime." This is how this illustration was captioned in an article on the front page of an Egyptian state newspaper. The article itself is called “Queen Nefertiti was exposed in the Berlin Museum.” In fact, the body on the bronze statue was covered with a thin cloth, just like on other real statues of Nefertiti.

Torso of young Nefertiti(?)

Back view

Middle-aged Nefertiti

From the depths of centuries, the beautiful eyes of Queen Nefertiti, captured in the famous sculptural portrait, look at us. What is hidden behind her incomprehensible gaze?
This woman has reached the heights of power. Her husband, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton), was one of the most mysterious personalities in human history. He was called the heretic pharaoh, the subversive pharaoh. Is it possible to be happy next to such a person? And if so, at what price does this happiness come?

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One can only marvel at the unusual historical fate of Queen Nefertiti. For thirty-three centuries her name was forgotten, and when the brilliant French scientist F. Champollion deciphered ancient Egyptian writings at the beginning of the last century, she was mentioned quite rarely and only in special academic works.
The 20th century, as if demonstrating the quirkiness of human memory, raised Nefertiti to the pinnacle of fame. On the eve of the First World War, the German expedition, having completed excavations in Egypt, as usual, presented its finds for verification to inspectors of the Antiquities Service. (“The Antiquities Service” is an agency founded in 1858 to supervise archaeological expeditions and protect monuments of the past.) Among the objects allocated for German museums was an unremarkable plastered stone block.
When he was brought to Berlin, he turned into the head of Nefertiti. They say that archaeologists, who did not want to part with a wonderful work of art, wrapped the bust in silver paper and then covered it with plaster, correctly calculating that the inconspicuous architectural detail would not attract attention. When this was discovered, a scandal erupted. It was only extinguished by the outbreak of the war, after which German Egyptologists were deprived for some time of the right to conduct excavations in Egypt.
However, the priceless artistic merit of the bust was worth even these sacrifices. Nefertiti's star was rising so rapidly, as if this woman was not an ancient Egyptian queen, but a modern movie star. It was as if her beauty had been waiting for recognition for many centuries, and finally the times came whose aesthetic taste elevated Nefertiti to the pinnacle of success.

If you look at Egypt from a bird's eye view, then almost in the very center of the country, 300 kilometers south of Cairo, you can see a small Arab village called el-Amarna. It is here that the time-eaten rocks, coming close to the river, then begin to retreat, forming an almost regular semicircle. Sands, the remains of the foundations of ancient buildings and the greenery of palm groves - this is what the once luxurious ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten, where one of the most famous women in the world reigned, looks like now.
Nefertiti, whose name in translation means "The Beauty Who Came", was not the sister of her husband, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, although for some reason this version became very widespread. The beautiful Egyptian woman came from a family of relatives of Queen Tiu - she was the daughter of a provincial priest. And although at that time Nefertiti received an excellent education in a special school, such a relationship irritated the proud queen and Nefertiti’s mother was called her wet nurse in many official documents.
But the rare beauty of a provincial girl melted the heart of the heir to the throne, and Nefertiti became his wife.

For one of the “Sun Pharaoh” holidays, Amenhotep III gave his wife a truly royal gift: a summer residence, stunning in its beauty and richness, the Malkatta Palace, next to which there was a huge artificial lake planted with lotuses, with a boat for the queen’s walks.

Naked Nefertiti sat in a chair with lion paws near a round golden mirror. Almond-shaped eyes, straight nose, neck like a lotus stem. There was not a drop of foreign blood in her veins, as evidenced by the darkish tint of her skin and the warm, fresh, even blush, intermediate between golden yellow and brownish bronze. “Beauty, mistress of joy, full of praise... filled with beauties,” this is how poets wrote about her. But the thirty-year-old queen was not happy with her reflection as before. Fatigue and grief broke her, a fold of wrinkles lay from the wings of her beautiful nose to her bold lips, like a seal.

A maid, a dark-skinned Nubian, entered with a large jug of aromatic water for ablution.
Nefertiti stood up, as if awakening from her memories. But trusting in the skillful hands of Tadukippa, she again went into her thoughts.

How happy they were with Amenhotep on their wedding day. He is 16 years old, she is 15. They took power over the most powerful and richest country in the world. The thirty years of the reign of the previous pharaoh were not marred by disasters or wars. Syria and Palestine tremble before Egypt, Mitanni sends flattering letters, mountains of gold and incense are regularly sent from the mines of Kush.
The most important thing is that they love each other. The son of King Amenhotep III and Queen Tiu is not very handsome: thin, narrow-shouldered. But when he looked at her, obsessed with love, and the poems written for her came out of his big lips, she laughed with happiness. The future pharaoh ran after the young princess under the dark arches of the Theban palace, and she laughed and hid behind the columns.

The maid laid out the necessary accessories on the richly decorated dressing table: gold boxes with ointments, spoons for rubbing, eye antimony, lipstick and other cosmetics, manicure tools and nail paint. Deftly grabbing a bronze razor, she began to carefully and respectfully shave the queen's head.

Nefertiti indifferently ran her finger over the golden scarab on a jar of rice powder and recalled how once, even before the wedding, Amenhotep revealed his secret to her at sunset.
He stroked her thin fingers and, looking somewhere into the distance with sparkling eyes, said that the day before in a dream Aten himself, the god of the solar disk, appeared to him and spoke to him as to a brother:
-You see, Nefertiti. I see, I know that everything in the world is not as we are all used to seeing. The world is bright. It was created by Aton for happiness and joy. Why make sacrifices to all these numerous gods? Why worship beetles, hippos, birds, crocodiles, if they themselves, like us, are children of the Sun. Aten is the only true god!
Amenhotep's voice rang. He said how beautiful and wonderful the world created by Aton was, and the prince himself was beautiful at that moment. Nefertiti listened to every word of her beloved and accepted his faith with all her heart.

Having received the title of pharaoh, the first thing Amenhotep IV did was change his name. "Amenhotep" means "Amon is pleased." He began to call himself “Akhnaten”, i.e. “Pleasing to Aten.”
How happy they were! People can't be that happy. Almost immediately, Akhenaten decided to build a new capital - Akhetaten, which means “horizon of Aten.” This was supposed to be the best city on earth. Everything will be different there. New happy life. Not like in gloomy Thebes. And the people there will all be happy, because they will live in truth and beauty.

***
The heir's wife spent her youth in Thebes - the brilliant capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom era (XVI-XI centuries BC). Grandiose temples of the gods coexisted here with luxurious palaces, houses of the nobility, gardens of rare trees and artificial lakes. The gilded needles of obelisks, the tops of painted pylon towers and colossal statues of kings pierced the sky. Through the lush greenery of tamarisks, sycamores and date palms, the alleys of sphinxes lined with turquoise-green faience tiles and connecting temples were visible.
Egypt was at the apogee of its heyday. The conquered peoples brought here, to Thebes, countless vessels with wine, leather, lapis lazuli, so beloved by the Egyptians, and all sorts of rare wonders. From the distant regions of Africa came caravans loaded with ivory, ebony, incense and countless gold, for which Egypt was so famous in ancient times. In everyday life there were the finest fabrics made of corrugated linen, lush wigs stunning in their variety, rich jewelry and expensive anointings...

All Egyptian pharaohs had several wives and countless concubines - the East was the East even then. But the “harem” in our understanding never existed in Egypt: the younger queens lived in separate residences next to the palace, and no one was particularly concerned with the comforts of the concubines. Those whom the texts call “The Lady of Upper and Lower Egypt,” “the great royal consort,” “the wife of God,” “the king’s adornment,” were primarily high priestesses who, together with the king, participated in temple services and rituals and supported by their actions Maat - world harmony.
For the ancient Egyptians, every new morning is a repetition of the original moment of the creation of the universe by God. The task of the queen participating in the service is to pacify and appease the deity with the beauty of her voice, the unique charm of her appearance, and the sound of the sistrum - a sacred musical instrument. Inaccessible to most mortal women, the status of the “great royal wife”, who possessed great political power, was based precisely on religious foundations. The birth of children was a secondary matter; the younger queens and concubines handled it well.
Theia was an exception - she was so close to her husband that she shared her bed with him for many years and bore him several children. True, only the eldest son lived to adulthood, but the priests saw the providence of Heaven in this too. They became aware of how misinterpreted this fishery was much later.
Amenhotep IV ascended the throne in 1424 BC. And... he started a religious reform - a change of gods, an unheard of thing in Egypt.

The universally revered god Amon, whose worship increasingly strengthened the power of the priests, was, by the will of the pharaoh, replaced by another god, the sun god - Aten. Aten - “visible solar disk”, was depicted in the form of a solar disk with palm rays that bestow benefits on people. The pharaoh's reforms were successful, at least for the period of his reign. A new capital was founded, many new temples and palaces were erected. Along with the ancient religious foundations, the canonical rules of ancient Egyptian art also disappeared. Having gone through years of exaggerated realism, the art of the time of Akhenaten and Nefertiti gave birth to those masterpieces that were discovered by archaeologists millennia later...
In the winter of 1912, German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt began excavating the remains of another house in the destroyed settlement. It soon became clear to archaeologists that they had discovered a sculpture workshop. Unfinished statues, plaster masks and accumulations of stones of various types - all this clearly determined the profession of the owner of the vast estate. And among the finds was a life-size bust of a woman made of limestone and painted.
Flesh-colored nape, red ribbons running down the neck, blue headdress. A gentle oval face, a beautifully outlined small mouth, a straight nose, beautiful almond-shaped eyes, slightly covered with wide, heavy eyelids. The right eye retains a rock crystal insert with an ebony pupil. The tall blue wig is entwined with a gold bandage decorated with gems...
The enlightened world gasped - a beauty appeared to the world, having spent three thousand years in the darkness of oblivion. Nefertiti's beauty turned out to be immortal. Millions of women envied her, millions of men dreamed of her. Alas, they did not know that they pay for immortality during their lifetime, and sometimes pay an exorbitant price.
Together with her husband, Nefertiti ruled Egypt for about 20 years. Those same two decades that were marked by a religious revolution unprecedented for the entire ancient Eastern culture, which shook the foundations of the ancient Egyptian sacred tradition and left a very ambiguous mark on the history of the country.
Nefertiti played an important role in the events of her time. She was the living embodiment of the life-giving power of the sun, giving life. In the large temples of the god Aten in Thebes, prayers were offered to her; none of the temple actions could take place without her - the guarantee of fertility and prosperity of the entire country “She sends Aten to rest with a sweet voice and beautiful hands with sisters,- it is said about her in the inscriptions of the tombs of noblemen of her contemporaries - At the sound of her voice, everyone rejoices.”

Having banned the cults of traditional gods and, above all, the universal Amun - the ruler of Thebes, Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten ("Effective Spirit of Aten"), and Nefertiti founded their new capital - Akhetaten. The volume of work was enormous. At the same time, temples, palaces, buildings of official institutions, warehouses, houses of the nobility, homes and workshops were erected. Holes dug in the rocky ground were filled with soil, and then specially brought trees were planted in them - there was no time to wait for them to grow here. As if by magic gardens grew among the rocks and sand, water splashed in ponds and lakes, the walls of the royal palace rose high in obedience to the royal order. Nefertiti lived here.
Both parts of the grandiose palace were surrounded by a brick wall and connected by a monumental covered bridge spanning the road. The residential buildings of the royal family were adjacent to a large garden with a lake and pavilions. The walls were decorated with paintings of bunches of lotuses and papyrus, swamp birds flying out of ponds, scenes of the life of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their six daughters. The floor painting imitated ponds with swimming fish and birds fluttering around. Gilding and inlay with faience tiles and semiprecious stones were widely used.
Never before in Egyptian art have there appeared works that so vividly demonstrate the feelings of royal spouses. Nefertiti and her husband are sitting with their children, Nefertiti is swinging her legs, climbing on her husband’s lap, and holding her little daughter with her hand. On every stage there is always the presence of Aten - the solar disk with numerous hands holding out symbols of eternal life to the royal couple
Along with intimate scenes in the palace gardens, in the tombs of the nobles of Akhetaten, other episodes of the family life of the king and queen were preserved - unique images of royal lunches and dinners. Akhenaten and Nefertiti sit on chairs with lion paws, next to them is the dowager queen-mother Teye, who arrived on a visit. Near the feasters there are tables with dishes decorated with lotus flowers, vessels with wine. The feasters are entertained by a female choir and musicians, servants are bustling about. The three eldest daughters - Meritaten, Maketaten and Ankhesenpa-aten - are present at the celebration.

Nefertiti treasured the pictures of those happy years in her heart.
They were building a city. The best craftsmen and artists of Egypt gathered in Akhetaten. The king preached among them his ideas of a new art. From now on, it was supposed to reflect the true beauty of the world, and not copy ancient frozen forms. Portraits should have the features of real people, and the compositions should be lifelike.
One after another, their daughters were born. Akhenaten adored them all. He spent a long time fiddling with the girls in front of happy Nefertiti. He pampered them and extolled them.
And in the evenings they rode a chariot along the palm alleys of the city. He rode the horses, and she hugged him and cheerfully joked about the fact that he had acquired a large belly. Or we rode in a boat along the surface of the Nile, among thickets of reeds and papyrus.
Their family dinners were full of carefree fun, when Akhenaten would portray the angry Sobek, the crocodile god, with a piece of chop in his teeth, and the girls and Nefertiti would roar with laughter.
They held services in the Temple of Aten. The deity was depicted in the sanctuary in the form of a golden disk stretching out thousands of arms to people. The pharaoh was himself the high priest. And Nefertiti is the high priestess. Her voice and divine beauty bowed the people before the shining face of the true God.

While the maid anointed the queen’s body with precious oil, which spread the scent of myrrh, juniper and cinnamon, Nefertiti recalled what a holiday there was in the city when Tiu, Akhenaten’s mother, came to visit her children and granddaughters in Akhetaten. The girls jumped around her and vying with each other to amuse her with their games and dances. She smiled and did not know which of them to listen to.

Akhenaten proudly showed his mother his new capital: palaces for the nobility, houses of artisans, warehouses, workshops and the main pride were built - the Temple of Aten, which in size, pomp and splendor was supposed to surpass everything existing in the world.
- There will be not one altar, but several. And there will be no roof at all, so that the sacred rays of Aten fill it with their grace,” he enthusiastically told his mother. She listened silently to her only son. Tiu's intelligent, penetrating eyes looked sad. How could she explain that his efforts to make everyone happy were of no use to anyone. That he is not loved or respected as a sovereign, and only curses come from everywhere. The beautiful city of the sun emptied the royal treasury within a few years. Yes, the city is beautiful and delightful, but it eats up all the income. But Akhenaten didn’t want to hear about saving.
And in the evenings, Tiu had long conversations with her daughter-in-law, hoping to at least influence her son through her.
Oh, why, why, then she didn’t listen to the words of the wise Tiu!

But the couple's personal happiness did not last long...
Everything began to fall apart the year their eight-year-old daughter, the cheerful and sweet Meketaten, died. She went to Osiris so suddenly that it seemed as if the sun had stopped shining.
Remembering how she and her husband gave orders to the gravediggers and embalmers, the sobs that had been suppressed for a long time burst out in a stream of tears. The maid with a jar of eyebrow dye stopped in confusion. After a minute, the Great Queen controlled herself and, swallowing her sobs, exhaled and straightened up: "Continue."

With the death of Meketaten, happiness ended in their palace. Disasters and grief followed in an endless series, as if the curses of the overthrown gods fell on their heads. Soon, Tiu, the only person at court who supported Akhenaten, followed the little princess into the kingdom of the dead. With her death, there was no one left in Thebes except her enemies. The widow of the powerful Amenhotep III alone restrained with her authority the rage of the offended priests of Amun. With her, they did not dare to openly attack Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

Nefertiti squeezed her temples with her fingers and shook her head. If only she and her husband had been more careful, more political, more cunning then. If then Akhenaten had not expelled the priests from the old temples and had not forbidden people to pray to their gods... If only... But then it would not have been Akhenaten. Compromises are not in his nature. All or nothing. He destroyed everything old obsessively and mercilessly. He was confident that he was right and that he would win. He had no doubt that they would follow him... But no one did. A bunch of philosophers, artists and craftsmen - that’s his whole company.
She tried, repeatedly tried to talk to him, to open her eyes to the real essence of things. He only became angry and withdrawn into himself, spending more and more time with architects and sculptors.
Once again, when she approached him to talk about the fate of the dynasty, he shouted at her: “Rather than meddle in my affairs, it would be better if she gave birth to a son!”
Nefertiti gave birth to six daughters to Akhenaten in twelve years. She was always by his side. His affairs and problems were always her affairs and problems. At all services in the temples of Aten, she always stood next to him wearing a crown, ringing the sacred sistrums. And she did not expect such an insult. She was pierced to the very heart. Nefertiti came out silently and, rustling her pleated skirt, retired to her chambers...

The cat Bast entered the room with silent steps. Around the neck of the graceful animal was a gold necklace. Approaching the owner, Bast jumped onto her knees and began to rub herself against her hands. Nefertiti smiled sadly. Warm, cozy animal. She impulsively pressed her to herself. Bast, with some instinct, always guessed when the mistress was feeling bad and came to console her. Neferiti ran her hand over the soft light gray fur. Amber eyes with vertical pupils looked at the man wisely and condescendingly. “Everything will pass,” she seemed to say.
“You really are a goddess, Bast,” smiled the reassured Nefertiti. And the cat, majestically raising its tail, left the room, showing with its appearance that it had more important things to do.

The death of Maketaten appears to have been a turning point in Nefertiti's life. The one whom contemporaries called "beautiful, beautiful in a diadem with two feathers, mistress of joy, full of praises and filled with beauty", a rival appeared. And not just a temporary whim of the ruler, but a woman who really ousted his wife from his heart - Kiya.
All of Akhenaten's attention was focused on her. While his father was still alive, the Mitanni princess Taduheppa arrived in Egypt as a guarantee of political stability in interstate relations. It was for her, who according to tradition took the Egyptian name, that Akhenaten built the luxurious country palace complex Maru-Aten. But most importantly, she gave birth to two sons to the pharaoh, who later married their older half-sisters.
However, the triumph of Kiya, who bore sons to the king, was short-lived. She disappeared in the 16th year of her husband's reign. Having come to power, Nefertiti's eldest daughter, Meritaten, destroyed not only the images, but also almost all references to her mother's hated rival, replacing them with her own images and names. From the point of view of the ancient Egyptian tradition, such an act was the most terrible curse that could be carried out: not only the name of the deceased was erased from the memory of descendants, but also his soul was deprived of well-being in the afterlife.

Nefertiti was already finishing her vestments. The maid dressed her in a white dress made of the finest transparent white linen, and buttoned up a wide chest decoration studded with gems. She put a fluffy wig curled in small waves on her head. In her favorite blue headdress with red ribbons and a golden uraeus, she had not gone out for a long time.
Aye, an old dignitary and former scribe at the court of Amenhotep III, entered. He was “the bearer of the fan at the right hand of the king, the chief of the king’s friends” and “the father of God,” as he was called in letters. Akhenaten and Nefertiti grew up in the palace before his eyes. He taught Akhenaten to read and write. His wife was at one time the princess's nurse. And Nefertiti was like his own daughter.
At the sight of Nefertiti, Aye’s wrinkled face broke into a gentle smile:
- Hello, my girl! How are you
- Don't ask, Aye. Good is not enough. You heard that Akhenaten gave this upstart Kiya, a concubine from Mitanni, the palace of Maru-Aten. She appears everywhere with her. This creature already dares to wear a crown.
Aye frowned and sighed. The girl from the harem gave birth to two sons for the king. Everyone just whispered about the crown princes Smenkhkare and Tutankhaten, not embarrassed by Nefertiti.
The princes were still small children, but their fate was already decided: they would become the husbands of Akhenaten’s eldest daughters. The royal line must continue. The blood of the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty from the great Ahmes himself flowed in their veins.
-Well, what's new in Thebes? What do they write from the provinces? - The queen courageously prepared to listen to the difficult news.
- Nothing good, queen. Thebes buzzes like a swarm of bees. The priests ensured that the name of Akhenaten was cursed on every corner. There's still this drought here. All to one. King Dushratta of Mitanni demands gold again. They are asking the northern provinces to send troops to protect them from the nomads. And the king ordered everyone to refuse.” Eye shrugged. “It’s a shame to watch.” With such difficulty we achieved influence in these lands, and now we are losing them so easily. There is discontent everywhere. I told Akhenaten about this, but he doesn’t want to hear anything about the war. He is only annoyed that the delivery deadlines for marble and ebony are missed. And also, queen, beware of Horemheb. He very quickly finds a common language with your influential enemies, he knows who to be friends with.

After Ey left, the queen sat alone for a long time. The sun went down. Nifertiti went out onto the balcony of the palace. The huge cloudless dome of the sky on the horizon glowed with white flames surrounding a fiery disk. Warm rays painted the ocher mountain peaks on the horizon soft orange and reflected in the waters of the Nile. Evening birds sang in the lush greenery of tamarisks, sycamores and date palms that surrounded the palace. The evening coolness and anxiety came from the desert.

It is not known how long Nefertiti lived after this decline. The date of her death has not been revealed by historians and the queen’s grave has not been found. In essence it doesn't matter. Her love and happiness - her whole life - went into oblivion along with her hopes and dreams of the New World.
Prince Smekhkara did not live long at all and died under Akhenaten. After the death of the reformer pharaoh, ten-year-old Tutankhaten assumed power. Under pressure from the priests of Amun, the boy pharaoh left the city of the Sun and changed his name. Tutankhaten (“Living Likeness of Aten”) henceforth began to be called Tutankhamun (“Living Likeness of Amun”), but did not live long. There are no continuers of Akhenaten’s work, his spiritual and cultural revolution. The capital returned to Thebes.
The new king Horemheb did everything to erase even the memory of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. The city of their dreams was completely destroyed. Their names were carefully erased from all records, in tombs, on all columns and walls. And from now on, it was everywhere indicated that after Amenhotep III, power passed to Horemheb. Only here and there, by chance, were reminders of the “criminal from Akhetaten” left. A hundred years later, everyone forgot about the king and his wife, who 1369 years before the birth of Jesus Christ preached faith in one God.

For three thousand four hundred years, sand rushed over the place where there once was a beautiful city, until one day residents of a neighboring village began to find beautiful shards and fragments. Lovers of antiquity showed them to specialists, and they read on them the names of a king and queen unknown in the history of Egypt. Some time later, a cache of rotten chests filled with clay letters was discovered. The history of the tragedy that befell Akhetaten gradually became clearer. The figures of the pharaoh and his beautiful wife emerged from the darkness. Archaeological expeditions flocked to Amarna (as this place was now called).

On December 6, 1912, in the ruins of the workshop of the ancient sculptor Thutmes, the trembling hands of Professor Ludwig Borchard brought to light an almost intact bust of Nefertiti. He was so beautiful and perfect that it seemed that the queen’s Ka (soul), exhausted by suffering, returned to the world to tell about herself.
For a long, long time the elderly professor, the leader of the German expedition, looked at this beauty, which was so unreal for hundreds and thousands of years, and thought a lot, but the only thing he could write down in his diary: “There is no point in describing, just look!”

For many centuries now, the face of this woman has been considered the standard of female beauty, about which legends are written, because it is exquisite and spiritual. Recently, a real boom has begun around the image of Nefertiti, as women turn to plastic surgeons with requests to copy the queen’s face shape. Women do makeup like the famous Egyptian maiden wore, and fashion designers create outfits, shoes and hats that also resemble Nefertiti’s outfits.

There are many versions of the origin of the Egyptian queen, but recently another, more recent version has appeared, according to which she was born in 1370, but not in Egypt, as previously thought. True, historians still cannot come to a common opinion in which country and family she was born.

It’s strange, but previously they did not pay attention to the name of the queen of Egypt, but Nefertiti, translated from the Egyptian language - the beauty who came, this suggests that she arrived in Egypt from another country. This means that the secret of her origin may be in her name, and the shape of Nefertiti’s eyes speaks of her non-Egyptian origin. There is a hypothesis that the father of the future queen was from Turkey, and her mother from Mitani. Most likely, it was from Turkey that at a young age the girl was taken to the country of the pyramids as a gift to Amenhotep the third, and became one of the pharaoh’s many concubines. Women from the harem were supposed to give birth to children for the pharaoh and take care of him.

However, fate had its own way, since immediately after the arrival of the future queen in Egypt, old Amenhotep died, and according to the tradition of that time, all the wives of the pharaoh had to be killed and buried along with their owner. Unlike the others, Nefertiti was lucky, because the son of the late pharaoh, Amenhotep the fourth, fell in love with her. It was he who took a bold step for those times, left his father’s concubine alive, and eventually married her. It is clear that he was motivated by a fiery love for the girl, because it was not without reason that he signed all his decrees with an oath of eternal love for God and Nefertiti.

Even at a young age, the girl watched her husband and learned from him how to conduct government affairs. Already at the age of twenty, she was a virtuoso in political games; moreover, in her ability to convince opponents, she had no equal in that distant time. She did what she wanted, her husband did not contradict her, but always indulged her in everything. Nefertiti convinced her husband to renounce his religion and accept the gods of her land, after which Amenhotep the fourth changed his name and began to be called Akhenaten, which means pleasing to Aten, that is, the newly proclaimed God of the sun. The pharaoh declared his wife his equal and ordered that any of her orders be carried out, thus Nefertiti achieved what she wanted, namely, she became a real queen with all the rights and power.

On her orders, a new capital of the country was built, ancient temples were destroyed and persecution of adherents of the old faith began. The queen once a week went out onto the balcony of her palace, under which a crowd gathered, made fiery speeches, and then presented gifts to her subjects, throwing gold coins on the heads of the surprised Egyptians, while not forgetting to mention that these were gifts from the newly proclaimed solar God Aten.

However, problems began to arise in family life, since Nefertiti gave birth to her husband six daughters, and he needed an heir to the throne, so Akhenaten took another, young wife, who bore him a boy, the future Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Nefertiti was taken outside the city, where she lived for exactly a year, after which the melancholy Akhenaten returned her to the royal chambers, but they were not destined to live together for long. The expelled and oppressed religious priests united in groups and rebelled. The pharaoh was captured, his eyes were gouged out, and then executed. Nefertiti was the head of state for a few more days, after which she, too, was killed by the enraged fanatics of the old religion. They did not calm down even after Nefertiti’s death, first they plundered her tomb, and then mutilated her body and consigned it to oblivion for millennia.

And the mystery of the origin, power, and personal life of Queen Nefertiti still remains unsolved.

Queen Nefertiti (Nefer-Neferu-Aten) (late 15th century BC - 1354 BC), main wife of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), under whose reign the largest religious religious ceremony in Egyptian history was held reform.

“It’s pointless to describe. - Look!"

...Dust began to fall from a small fragment of stone... and the archaeologists froze, unable to move or say even a word... A beautiful woman looked at them, smiling slightly... A graceful long neck, perfect lines of cheekbones, an exquisite outline of the nostrils, full lips that, It seemed that a little more and they would open up in a smile...

In the small Arab village of El Amarna, in the sculptural workshop of the ancient Egyptian artist Thutmose, an inexpressibly beautiful female head was found: a high wig entwined with a gold bandage, on the forehead a uraeus (snake) - a symbol of royal power, the right eye, with a blue iris made of rock crystal and with an ebony pupil, it feels like he’s looking right at you... That same day, archaeologist Borchardt wrote in his diary: “It’s pointless to describe. - Look!".

In order to take this sculpture, which they could no longer part with, to Berlin, the scientists had to resort to fraud. They wrapped the bust in foil, and then covered it with plaster, “aging” it, turning it into a time-worn stone block, which neither customs officers nor Egyptian inspectors paid attention to. (This image of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt is still kept in the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. It has never been exhibited in Egypt.)

When the deception was discovered, a terrible international scandal broke out, which was only brought to an end by the Second World War. However, for many years, the path to Egypt was closed to German archaeological scientists...

The discovery, which was made in 1912 by the German archaeologist L. Borchardt, spread all over the world - the beauty of a woman who lived so long ago that it was difficult to imagine, captivated everyone. She became the “star” of the 20th century, proving that true beauty is eternal.

...She sincerely loved and was loved. In her life there was one man, one love, a lot of happiness, but also a lot of suffering.

She probably amazed everyone with her cuteness, as she was called “The Beauty to Come,” or Nefertiti. According to one version, her parents were from the priestly caste of the city of Koptos. The father, a court nobleman, was named Ey, and the mother, Tii, was the second cousin of Akhenaten’s mother, Tei. However, in official documents, for some reason, Tia is called only “the nurse of Nefertiti, the great wife of the king.” Perhaps this was done to hide the “non-divine” origin of Nefertiti or her blood connection with the priestly caste.

In any case, her family was rich and lived in the most brilliant city in the world - Thebes, the capital of Egypt, during its heyday. Since childhood, Nefertiti was surrounded by huge temples and luxurious palaces, majestic statues and avenues of sphinxes. Ivory, the most expensive incense, gold, ebony - all the most valuable and luxurious things that could be in the world were taken to Thebes. She had a happy childhood, and from the hands of loving parents she immediately fell into the arms of her beloved husband.

This loyalty was indecent for Pharaoh

...From the first moment, from the first glance that Amenhotep IV cast at his young wife, he realized that now there was only one woman for him. He had never seen anything more beautiful in his life, and she became the only one for him for 12 long years.
Such loyalty was surprising and even indecent for the pharaoh; this feeling amazed everyone around him - the courtiers, the nobility, the enemy priests.

The pharaoh had a large harem, and in order to reduce the influence of Queen Nefertiti, they began to send him the most beautiful concubines from all over the world.

However, Akhenaten saw only the beauty of his Nefertiti. Moreover, she turned out to be a wonderful friend, a wise adviser who understood human nature well, but at the same time she was pure in soul and friendly to everyone without exception.

No, just look,” they whispered in the palace, “how can this be?! Well, okay, he made him the main wife, but he doesn’t look at other women AT ALL. He remains faithful to her, although he can have thousands of beauties if he just wants to!!!

Never before had ancient Egyptian artists depicted such a clear feeling of love between the royal couple in their works - sculptures, bas-reliefs. They are always depicted together, side by side, as if they had never been apart.

...Here they are sitting next to each other at the festive table, which was set in honor of the arrival of Akhenaten’s mother, Teye, and next to them are their three daughters, musicians. Servants are bustling around.

...Here is the scene of the ceremonial departure: the pharaoh and his wife are so carried away by the conversation that they do not notice how their youngest daughter pushes the team rushing at full speed with a pole.

...But here is an almost erotic moment - the sculptor captured the spouses during a passionate love kiss.

And in all these scenes, Aten is always present - the new main deity - the solar disk with many hands that protect the couple, promising them eternal life...

Maybe Akhenaten was right when he chose a new deity for himself and his people, because his name and the name of his wife actually survived for centuries...

There is an assumption that Amenhotep was considered a rather strange ruler - humane, kind and proclaiming some “unthinkable” principles - equality and love between people and peace between nations. The pharaoh of Egypt, who lived 3,000 years ago, professed downright Christian values. However, despite this, it was Amenhotep IV who did what NONE of the 350 rulers who occupied the Egyptian throne had dared to do before him. He rebelled against pagan polytheism, declaring that there was one main god. And this is Aten, the solar disk that brings life to everything on earth.

In the name of this religion, he adopted the new name Akhenaten, which means “pleasing to Aten,” and Nefertiti, who supported her husband with all the passion of her soul, took for herself the name “Nefer-Nefer-Aten” - “beautiful with the beauty of Aten,” or “sun-faced.”

Of course, in addition to humanistic motives and religious ideals, the pharaoh and his wife also had their own political goals. By that time, the influence of priests of various cults had become quite strong. The high priests (especially Amon) had the best lands, beautiful buildings and a very strong influence on the people and courtiers, sometimes rivaling the influence of the pharaoh himself. So, by “abolishing” their religions and proclaiming himself and his wife the high priests of the new cult, Akhenaten “killed two birds with one stone.”

It was dangerous, and he needed reliable allies - Queen Nefertiti became his most devoted friend, fanatically, undividedly devoted.

They began to build a new capital for the new deity - the city of Akhetaten. In a beautiful and fertile valley between Thebes and Memphis, where snow-white rocks, coming close to the river and then retreating, form an almost regular semicircle, this grandiose construction began.

Many slaves simultaneously erected snow-white temples, palaces for the pharaoh and courtiers, housing for artisans, warehouses, administrative buildings, workshops... Huge trees were brought here and planted in pits dug into the rocky ground and filled with water - it was too long to wait until this land will sprout greenery...

And, as if in a fairy tale, a beautiful city with lakes and palaces, sparkling with gilding and inlays of semi-precious stones, in which the floors were painted like ponds with fish swimming in them, grew up in the middle of the desert.

This city belonged to two of them - Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti of Egypt.

The Great Royal Consort, the Lady of Upper and Lower Egypt, the wife of God herself was a divine incarnation on earth. As a high priestess, she took part with the pharaoh in the most important temple rituals, appeasing the supreme deity with the beauty of her voice and the charm of her face. “She sends Aten to rest with a sweet voice and beautiful hands with sisters, at the sound of her voice they rejoice” - these words, enclosed in hieroglyphs, were carved during her lifetime. Huge sculptures of Nefertiti in the image of the daughter of the Sun adorned the palace walls. The palace was erected in the capital to celebrate the sixth anniversary of Akhenaten's reign.

The hieroglyphs that Egyptologists deciphered convince us that the beauty of the “mistress of joy, full of praise...” was not only external, but also internal. She had a beautiful soul - “the mistress of pleasures,” contemporaries wrote about her, “pacifying Heaven and Earth with her sweet voice and her kindness.”

Nefertiti was beautiful and knew it, but she was lucky - despite this knowledge, which shattered the fates of many women, despite her deification, she was able to remain herself.

Perhaps that’s why Eternity spared her?

She loved to wear white translucent dresses made of the finest corrugated linen.

“The delight of my heart,” Akhenaten called her and covered papyrus scrolls with words about what ideal family happiness befell him. “Our love will last forever,” the romantic pharaoh believed.

But his prediction did not come true. After 12 years of happy marriage, Nefertiti had a rival.

Aten turned his face away from her

What could have caused this? Faded love, inexorable time?

The fact that Queen Nefertiti, having given birth to 6 girls, never gave the pharaoh an heir?.. Her elusive beauty?

Or perhaps Nefertiti herself fell in love with another?

There is a beautiful legend that the sculptor Thutmes, who immortalized her beauty, fell hopelessly in love with the “wife of God” on the day the pharaoh ascended the throne. And, having captured the beautiful face in his memory, he carved it out of simple sandstone for many weeks, since he was poor and did not have money for marble (this unfinished head of the very young Nefertiti has also survived to this day).

Thutmes was the author of the second, most famous bust of Nefertiti. When his workshop was excavated, among his belongings they found a casket with the inscription: “the sculptor Thutmes, praised by the pharaoh,” which means that he was already represented at court, and there is a version that he helped Nefertiti in the design and construction of a tomb for her daughter.

Perhaps it was his love that made her appearance so perfect? But was it mutual?..

Or maybe the couple was separated by the death of their daughter, Maketaten, which each experienced alone.

We will never know the answer to this question.

But the name of the homewrecker is known - Kiya. According to one version, the new main wife was not Egyptian - this princess was sent to Akhenaten as a sign of friendship between the two states. Kiya gave the pharaoh the long-awaited sons of Smenkhkare and Tutankhaten. And the new frescoes that emerged from the masters’ chisels even depicted her in the pharaoh’s crown as Akhenaten’s co-ruler. From the bas-reliefs a wide-cheeked face with a hard expression in the eyes and mouth looks at us, rough and beautiful only with the audacity of youth.

And Nefertiti, yesterday a demigoddess, and today a woman abandoned and abandoned by her husband, is “exiled” to one of the castles on the northern outskirts of the city, essentially relegated to the status of a simple concubine.

The Great Aton turned his face away from her!.. How can she live without love?..

In the last lifetime sculpture, Nefertiti is depicted tired, with a tired face, there is a certain brokenness in her entire appearance, and the figure, after six births, has already lost the perfection of its lines.

After four years, Akhenaten is tired of his new wife and sends her away. However, it is no longer possible to return Nefertiti - her love was too sincere and her disappointment was too strong...

And then Akhenaten marries their eldest daughter Meritaton (who bore him a daughter).

And then another one of the younger ones - Akhesenpaaton. In ancient Egypt, such marriages between blood relatives were common. But perhaps Akhenaten wanted to turn back time, trying to discern a reflection of the beauty of their mother Nefertiti in the faces of his daughters?

By the way, Meritaton, taking revenge for her mother’s broken heart, began to destroy all images and mentions of Kiya, as if erasing from the face of the earth any mention of her from the memory of descendants. Even after her death, Kiya was not destined to find peace - her mummy (probably on the orders of one of Nefertiti's daughters) was thrown out of the crypt, her death mask was mutilated, and the inscriptions with her name were cut out. Only according to the inscriptions on the vessels in which the Egyptians separately buried the entrails, they restored the name of the one who was deprived of peace after death. And her eldest son was buried in the sarcophagus.

Cruel revenge...

When Akhenaten died, his last wife and daughter Akhesenpaaten were married to her half-brother Tutankhaten. The priests convinced the young pharaoh to return to his former faith and change his name to Tutankhamun. The capital was returned to Thebes, temples and statues dedicated to Aten were destroyed, any mention of him was erased from scrolls and destroyed on bas-reliefs, people began to leave Akhenaten, leaving for the old capital.

The mirage city dies along with its queen

Nefertiti grew old, and along with her, the beautiful mirage city built by her husband grew old and collapsed - from both of them, drop by drop, life disappeared into the sand of the desert that surrounded them. She was destined to survive her beloved husband, the destruction of their faith, and the death of the city that they built together. She had the whole world - and she lost everything.

What were her last hours like? Whose face did she remember, whose name was on her lips?

According to legend, at her request, she was buried in a modest sarcophagus next to Akhenaten (and not in a golden one, like her rival Kiya), in a tomb among the rocks that surrounded their city.

But the name and fate of the Queen of Egypt Nefertiti were not lost in the sands of Eternity.

Thousands of years later, in a world that has changed beyond recognition, her beautiful features, which glow with true love and happiness, still delight people with their perfection, giving them the joy of contact with true beauty.

Powerful pharaohs, majestic pyramids, and the silent Sphinx personify the distant and mysterious Ancient Egypt. Queen Nefertiti is no less mysterious and famous royal beauty of antiquity. Her name, covered with a halo of legends and fiction, has become a symbol of all that is beautiful. Who was the most mysterious and “perfect” woman of Ancient Egypt, exalted and identified with, the mention of whom at one point disappeared, like herself?

Egyptian Queen Nefertiti ruled alongside Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known to history as Akhenaten, more than three thousand years ago. The sands of time swallowed up that long period of history, turning everything that surrounded the queen into dust. But the glory of Nefertiti has survived centuries, pulled out of oblivion, she again rules the world.

In 1912, while in Egypt, Ludwig Borchardt, a German archaeologist, discovered the workshop of the sculptor Thutmes, as clearly evidenced by accumulations of stones of various types, plaster masks, unfinished statues, and a fragment of a casket with the name of the sculptor Akhetaten. A life-size bust of a woman made of limestone was found in one of the rooms. Borchardt smuggled him out of Egypt. In 1920, the bust was donated. They tried to reveal secrets and mysteries about the life of the queen using various hypotheses. We can say that since then her name has been covered in worldwide fame, which has not faded to this day. Interest in the fate of the queen also increased. For a long time there were only isolated mentions of it, and not much information can be found even now.

There are many versions about the origin of Nefertiti. Scarce information gleaned from mentions on the walls of tombs and inscriptions on cuneiform tablets in the Amarna archive became the basis for the development of many versions about the origin of the queen. “The Perfect One,” as she was called, was an Egyptian, but there are versions that claim she was a foreign princess. Egyptologists have built several hypotheses about its origin. Some researchers believe that she is the daughter of Tushratta, the king of Mitanni. She changed her real name Taduhippa when she married Amenhotep III. Nefertiti became a widow early, and after the death of her husband she was declared the wife of his son Amenhotep IV. Nefertiti captivated the young pharaoh with her incredible beauty. They said that she had not yet given birth to beauty, and soon she became the “main” wife of the ruler. This kind of confirmed the version of her Egyptian origin, because Egyptians usually had royal blood. It is likely that this could be the daughter of the pharaoh. It was also assumed that Nefertiti was the daughter of one of those close to Akhenaten’s court.

The queen amazed not only with her extraordinary beauty, but also with her endless mercy. She gave people peace, her sunny soul was sung in poems and legends. Power over people was easily given to her, Egypt worshiped her. Queen Nefertiti had a strong will and the ability to inspire reverence.

Ancient Egyptian papyri, drawings, and bas-reliefs indicate that her marriage to Amenhotep IV was ideal, a symbol of respect, love and cooperation. The all-powerful pharaoh went down in history as a religious reformer. He was an extraordinary man who declared war on the priestly caste. He called himself Akhenaten, “pleasing to God,” moved the capital from Thebes to Akhetaten, erected new temples, and crowned them with sculptural colossi of the new Aten-Ra. In pursuing this policy, the ruler needed a reliable ally, and Nefertiti became him. An intelligent and strong wife helped the pharaoh to refract the consciousness of the entire country and win such a dangerous war with the mysterious clergy who subjugated Egypt. Queen Nefertiti attended diplomatic receptions. Pharaoh consulted with his wife in public. Sometimes she replaced his dignitary advisers. Nefertiti was worshiped; her majestic statues could be seen in almost every Egyptian city. Most often, she was depicted in a headdress, which was a tall blue wig, which was entwined with gold ribbons and a uraeus, symbolically emphasizing her power and connection with the gods.

There was also envy and intrigue. But no one dared to openly oppose the ruler’s wife; rather, on the contrary, Nefertiti was showered with offerings and gifts from petitioners. However, the wise queen helped only those who, in her opinion, could justify and deserve the trust of the pharaoh.

But fate, being the most unsurpassed director in human life, did not endlessly favor Nefertiti. The gods did not give her an heir to power. The queen only gave the pharaoh 6 daughters. It was here, not without the help of envious people, that a replacement for the reigning wife was found, power over the heart of the pharaoh passed to the beautiful concubine Kia. She was unable to keep the pharaoh near her for long, and it was difficult for him to choose between two women. A warm welcome always awaited him from the former queen, but the ostentatious courtesy did not deceive the pharaoh. The previous relationship between the strong-willed and proud Nefertiti and Akhenaten no longer existed. But she managed to maintain power over him. There are versions that it was Nefertiti, demonstrating her statesmanship, who offered Ankhesenamon, their joint third daughter, as a wife to Akhenaten; according to other versions, it was the eldest daughter Meritaton.

After the death of Akhenaten, their daughter was married to Tutankhamun, who moved the capital to Thebes. Egypt again began to worship Amun-ra and everything returned to normal. Only Nefertiti remained in Akhenaten, faithful to her husband’s ideas. She spent the rest of her life in exile. After the queen's death, at her request, she was buried in Akhenaten's tomb, but her mummy was never found. And the exact place of her burial is unknown.

However, her name, which meant “The Beautiful One has come,” is still the personification of all that is beautiful. A sculptural portrait of Queen Nefertiti, found at Amarna in 1912, as well as other delicate and poetic sketches created by Thutmes, the ancient master of Akhenaten, are kept in museums in Berlin and Cairo. In 1995, a sensational exhibition was held in Berlin that united the Egyptian collection, the center of which was Nefertiti and Akhenaten who met again.

Nefertiti became one of the most famous characters in the history of art, the personification of grace and tenderness, who discovered the emotional side of art during the reign of Akhenaten. The charm of the most beautiful queen gave artists an incredible opportunity to combine the beauty of art and life in one image.

The Queen of Ancient Egypt left behind many mysteries and secrets related to her life, which someone has yet to reveal.