In 1924, a bust of a beautiful woman was put on display at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. The bust depicts a woman with a long, slender neck and possessed of great beauty. In fact her name, “Nefertiti,” means the “beautiful one has come.” The bust, discovered in 1912, has become an enduring symbol of the beauty and mystery of the Egyptian culture.



Despite her vast beauty and the rise of her legend in modern times, details of Nefertiti's life are scarce and were it not for the discovery of this exquisite bust, she may have faded from ancient history all together. It was only after the discovery of this bust, that light was shed on this enigmatic and controversial queen and some suspect ruler of the people of Egypt.

Queen Nefertiti was wife to the Pharaoh Akhenaten, ruler of Egypt around the time of 1350 B.C. It is believed that after his death, she may have ruled Egypt herself for a time. But history whispers that Nefertiti had many enemies, and that those enemies may have assisted in erasing both her life and her legacy.

What we do know of this elegant Egyptian queen comes mostly from the Aten Temple and an ongoing excavation at Amarna by the British Egypt Exploration Society. Some Egyptologists theorize that her name's meaning, “the beautiful one has come” is evidence that she entered Egypt from a foreign land. Others believe she may have descended from royal blood. There is also a contingent of scholars that believe she was daughter to Ay, a powerful political figure, who became Pharaoh after the death of King Tut. Many scholars believe that Ay, Nefertiti's father, played a hand in the death of the boy king.

While details of her life before marriage are scant, her rise to power along with her husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten, provides some insight into the mysterious queen. Their elevation of Aten, the sun disc god, as the “true god” proved controversial and many believe this monotheistic direction was plotted by Queen Nefertiti herself. This practice did not sit well with the Egyptian priesthood and surely garnered the ruling couple an army of powerful enemies.

Questions still shroud the life and death of this controversial and enigmatic queen of the Nile. Her name and history were erased from historical records and statues and busts that bore her likeness destroyed as Egypt returned to polytheism. Only traces of the intriguing story of her past remain. The cause of her death too remains a mystery. With so many powerful enemies in the priesthood, she may well have succumbed to the perils of her own ambition.

With so little historical evidence, we are left mostly with speculation and conjecture that draw an incomplete picture of an intriguing historical figure. Anyone who has the good fortune to visit the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and see the bust of this exquisite Egyptian queen will wonder at her beauty and wonder even more about her life as a queen of the Nile.