Queen Nefertiti of Egypt
by Staff EditorEgyptian Queen Nefertiti was one of the most beautiful and powerful women in the ancient world. With her husband, Akhenaten, Nefertiti ruled Egypt in the middle of the 14th Century B.C. Ancient artwork discovered by archaeologists indicates that Queen Nefertiti in Egypt did things in ways that no other queen ever did. She wore pharaoh crowns which other queens did not wear. She is also shown killing her enemies just as a pharaoh did.
Despite this, there was an active campaign to erase Nefertiti’s reign from ancient Egyptian history. It is now clear why.
Nefertiti the Queen and her husband first made a name for themselves in Thebes, the capitol of Egypt. In Thebes, Karnak was the main temple. Here, the Egyptians worshipped many Gods. Amun was the most important god. Nefertiti and Akhenaten stopped worshipping Amun in favor of worshipping Aten, the Sun God. The Amun-worshipping priests were angry about this. Further, Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and her husband said that the Sun God needed its own holy city and that the existing capitol of the Egyptian Empire had to be abandoned. Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and Akhenaten proposed that the new capitol be in a deserted region of Egypt known as Amarna. They named the city Aketaten.
In the heart of Aketaten, Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and Akhenaten built the temple to Aten, the Sun God. It was right next to the king’s house and thrown room. Following that, the king and queen built homes in Akhenaten and tried to attract the middle classes from the cities of Egypt to move there. Archaeologists have found that it was the first planned suburb in history. Archaeologists have also uncovered a religious text carved into one of the walls of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti’s tomb that was dedicated to the Sun God. This hymn was the first recorded expression of the belief in just one God. It establishes Nefertiti and Akhenaten as progressive religious thinkers.
The king and queen of Egypt wanted to reform religious rituals as well. Typically, ordinary citizens were not let into the temple. But Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and her husband wanted to include all citizens in the worshipping of the Sun God. Therefore, the temple walls were built around the entire city.
Akhenaten and Egyptian Queen Nefertiti also wanted to change the status of the king himself. The ancient Egyptians saw their kings as a link between the gods and humans. Akhenaten and Nefertiti the queen wanted to be known as much more than that. They wanted to be thought of as gods themselves. Archaeologists have discovered artwork in their tomb which demonstrates that they tried to create the impression that they were different from other humans and that they were closer to gods.
Also, information on Queen Nefertiti and her husband indicates that they were aiming for something even greater than that. Ancient Egyptians believed that after death, a human being would move through the underworld and meet the God of Resurrection at which time he would be reborn. Egyptian Queen Nefertiti and Akhenaten advanced the idea that their souls would rise as one with the Sun God. In other words their souls would not have to go through the underworld or experience resurrection.
In keeping with their beliefs, Nefertiti the Queen and Akhenaten canceled the Egyptian’s annual Opet Festival. In this celebration, statues of the gods were paraded from temple to temple along the Nile. In its place, the king and queen themselves paraded around Thebes in their royal chariot. This made the citizens of Thebes very angry. After about ten years in power, Nefertiti the Queen and Akhenaten issued the most horrible order of their reign. This order directed that all of the shrines to the Egyptians’ many gods be destroyed. This enraged the citizens of Thebes. The king and queen were doing nothing less than trying to wipe out 2,000 years of Egyptian religion.
After seventeen years of rule in Egypt, information on Queen Nefertiti and her husband disappears from the record. Did they die of natural causes or disease? Were they murdered? No one knows for sure. All we do know is that the royal tomb was found empty.
Whoever succeeded Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti in Egypt had a short-lived reign, dying almost as soon as he was crowned. The next ruler of Egypt turned out to be a boy of nine named Tutankhamun. The old religion returned during his reign. But the vision of one true God would resurface centuries later.
