Page 70 - All About History - Issue 26-15

Nefertiti: The Queen who killed the gods

A sculpture
It is likely that Nefertiti led portraying Nefertiti
worship, indicating that she and Akhenaten
held significant power

The ruins of Amarna as
seen today, surrounded
by inhospitable cliffs

married in their mid teens, had their first child popular, and the rumblings of unrest could be felt
shortly after, and ascended the throne around 1351 across the kingdom.
BCE. What is known of their early reign is sketchy, With this religious revolution also came a
but archaeologists have deduced that throughout cultural one. Egyptian art, which before had
the 18th Dynasty, a cult of the god Amun had been stiff and formal, became much more
grown incredibly powerful, so much so that by the naturalistic. Depictions of Akhenaten took on
time Amenhotep was crowned, the cult’s priests a far more feminine shape, with rounded hips
were almost as powerful as the and a prominent chest. Scenes
pharaoh himself. depicting the royal family became
But in the fifth year of more intimate, showing the
Amenhotep’s reign, something couple kissing and bouncing their
extraordinary happened. The children on their knees. But what
pharaoh changed his name to is perhaps most extraordinary
Akhenaten, plundered and closed about the art of Amarna is the way
down the temples and threw Queen Nefertiti was portrayed.
the priests out of office. After Reliefs and statues show Nefertiti
thousands of years of polytheism, chariot racing, smiting enemies
he and Nefertiti declared that and even leading worship – roles
there was now only one true god: that before had always been
Aten, the sun-disc. And the only reserved for the pharaoh. During
way to reach this god was through A limestone relief depicting the first five years of their reign,
the pharaoh himself. Akhenaten Nefertiti making offerings to the she appeared in reliefs almost
sun god, Aten
then led a mass exodus from the twice as often as her husband,
ancient capital of Thebes and set about building and is often shown as being of equal size to him,
a new city in the middle of the desert, which he suggesting that Nefertiti was far more powerful
called ‘Amarna’. This was to be the new centre than the wives of the pharaohs before her.
of the Ancient Egyptian empire. The city was However, it wasn’t long before this period
surrounded on three sides by inhospitable cliffs – a of rich culture and peace came to an abrupt
natural defence against enemies of the crown. The end. Akhenaten had exhausted nearly all of his
young pharaoh knew that his actions had not been resources in building his new city and the nation
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