Queen Nefertiti

Queen Nefertiti is considered an icon of beauty to this day, she was strong enough to rule Egypt next to her husband Akhenaten, and they both called for monotheism and the worship of the god Aten.

The life of Queen Nefertiti

Not much is known about the origins of the beautiful queen, whose name means (a beautiful woman has come), but there are beliefs that she may be from the Levant, she married Akhenaten and bore him 6 daughters, and one of them married King Tutankhamun who was also the son of Akhenaten. She supported her husband in his rule and helped him introduce the concept of monotheism at a time when there were many gods worshiped by people and called for the worship of the god Aton, the “god of the sun”. Her rule reinforced at that time the issue of equality between men and women as she was appeared in the inscriptions and sculptures, striking the enemies just like the men kings did. During Nefertiti and her husband era, they moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Tell el-Amarna and lived there together for nearly seventeen years.

The life of Queen Nefertiti was very mysterious, as it is said that perhaps after the death of Akhenaten she disguised herself as a man and changed her name from Nefertiti to Smenkhkare in order to be able to rule, but the period of rule was not long.

Nefertiti Bust

In 1912, a statue of Queen Nefertiti, known as the bust, was found at a depth of 50 cm of dirt and gravel in one of the workshops located in Tell el-Amarna, which caused a great uproar until our time, as sayings differ about whether this statue is real or fake, therefore scholars and experts in the twenty-first century began the search to find the truth. One of the Egyptologists, in a statement, said that the experts analyzed this statue using modern techniques to see if this statue was really old, when they scanned the statue with a tomography, the internal structure was revealed for the first time, so it was found that it was made of limestone covered with a layer of plaster that was colored later, this matter was considered suspicious, as it is said that in the ancient world, there was not a statue whose parts were finished using plaster.

The circumstances and timing during which this statue was found also aroused suspicion, as at that time one of the princes was visiting the site where the excavations were taking place, and perhaps Burchardt, who found the statue, wanted to impress them, thus forged the statue. Some forgery experts say that since the statue has only one eye, while it is easy to find an eye to complete the statue, this may be a reason to explain that it is real.

However, when the statue was found, it was found in a strange shape, as it was damaged in certain and illogical aspects, it was found on its face damaged from the ear and the head of the cobra snake was missing, while the face was completely undamaged, thus they considered that these damages were selected as if it was deliberately dropped on its right side, then the left, perhaps this was the desire of the one who wanted the statue to be found in this way, keeping the face pure.

The scientists carried out other research on the statue, using an advanced X-ray fluorescence test by directing lasers at the statue and observing the elements coming out of the laser, that examination can detect whether there are new dyes that prove the falsehood of the statue. When the results came out, it was found that the dyes used correspond exactly to the type of dyes used by the artists of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt.

Despite the research conducted that may prove the truth of this statue, the opinions about it are still questionable, but if the statue is fake, there is no doubt that whoever designed it was a genius because of his ability to use and imitate the ancient Egyptian dyes recipes used at the time.

Disappearance of Queen Nefertiti and her tomb

In addition to the myth about the queen disguising herself as a man in order to be able to rule in the name of Smenkhkare, it is also said that she suddenly disappeared after the death of one of her daughters from King Akhenaten, and it has not yet been inferred how the queen died or where she was buried.

According to the expectations of the Egyptian archaeologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, based on his statement, that the tomb of the beautiful queen may be located in the western Valley of the Kings, in which two of the Amarna people were buried, the father of Akhenaten, “Amenhotep III” and “Ay”, who took power after King Tutankhamun.

In 2015 AD, a scientist from the University of Arizona stated that through a digital survey of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, there were indications that might reveal the existence of secret passages that might lead to other burial chambers, which likely may be the tomb of Queen Nefertiti.

However, the location of Queen Nefertiti’s tomb has not been inferred so far, and searches are still ongoing.