Ancient Egyptian Queens: Ankhesenamun; royal sister and wife

CAIRO – 7 January 2018: Today, Ancient Egyptians captivate the minds of people around the world because of their extraordinary contributions to civilization. Egypt Today presents a glimpse on the greatest queens in Ancient Egypt.

Last time, Egypt Today shed light on Ankhesenpepi II’s life, but the chosen queen for today is Ankhesenamun.

Her name is always accompanied with two of the most celebrated kings in the Ancient Egyptian history: Akhenaten and Tutankhamun.

Born in an unsettled time during the 18th dynasty reign, she was the sixth daughter of King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, Ankhesenamun originally named as Ankhesenpaaten which means her life is for Aten, according to researcher and author Ismail Hamed.

Akhenaten is known for his rebellious religious beliefs, as he abandoned various Ancient Egyptian gods and unified them in one god only which is Aten.
Ankhesenamun was known for her strong and passionate love for her husband, and half-brother King Tutankhamun. They got married while they were young.

His tomb narrated different forms of their great love story, for example Ankhesenamun put roses on her husband’s tomb, in addition to the great painting on Tutankhamun’s royal seat, according to prominent Egyptologist and author Zahi Hawas.

When Tutankhamun reached the throne of Egypt, he tried to ease the critical crisis between the ruler and Amun priests, so he changed the royal name, and added “Amun” to the final syllable of the name instead of “Aten”.

He also transformed the official religion of Egypt from “Aten” to “Amun”, and renamed Tiba as the official capital of the Egyptian Kingdom.
After Tutankhamun’s eleven-year reign, Ankhesenamun feared for her safety, so she asked the huthi king to let her marry one of his sons, according to author Hussein Abdel Basir.

Referred to as “Egypt’s lost princess,” the mummy of Ankhesenamun has not yet been found, but in 2017, a number of news agencies such as Fox News, and the Daily Mail reported that a number of experts claimed discovering Ankhesenamun’s tomb.
“A tomb that may have belonged to the wife of King Tutankhamun has been discovered in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, according to archaeologists,” Fox News reported on July 19, 2017.