Nefertiti am I, the wife of Akhenaten. This name means "the beautiful woman has come", and I am one of the most famous and beloved of all ancient Egyptian queens. One of the best known Egyptian treasures is a bust of mine which is now placed in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.

I was married to Akhenaten and while living in Memphis gave birth to six daughters. I moved with my husband to Akhetaten where, as shown on wall scenes, I participated in all the religious ceremonies. It was only through us, the combined royal pair, that the full blessing of god Aten could be bestowed...

As compared to other ancient Egyptian queens, I was displayed with an outstanding prominence. My name is usually enclosed in a royal cartouche, and the number of my statues and drawings are more than those of Akhenaten! Some have even claimed that it was me, not Akhenaten, who instigated the monotheistic religion of Aten... It was around the 15th regnal year of Akhenaten that I disappeared from the scene, quite mysteriously. Could it be that I died then? To this date, there are no existing indications of that. Some scholars believe that I was banished, and that I lived the rest of her life in the northern palace.

Two reasons could be used for explaining my banishment. First, it is thought that I disapproved of the slow return to the worship of Amon, which was taking place at that time, with Smenkhkare becoming co-regent and the moving back to Thebes to re-open some temples. The second opinion is that perhaps I believed that Akhenaten was losing touch with his people and angering them by destroying all other gods besides his own, thus I could have been banished by Akhenaten for going against his religion. Whatever the case, I have been replaced by my eldest daughter, Meritaten.

Famed throughout the ancient world for my outstanding beauty, I, Akhenaten's queen Nefertiti remain the one of the most well known of the queens of Egypt. The famous statue of me, found in a sculptors workshop in Akhetaten, is one of the most immediately recognisable icons from this period of history. It has escaped the excesses of the Amarna artistic style, and survived the wholesale destruction of Akhenaten's monuments after his death.

Little is known about my origins and historians have asked themselves if I was of royal blood. My father is believed to be a high official of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, called Ay, who went on to become Pharaoh after Tutankhamun. Ay, however, is believed to have been a relative of Queen Tiye, Amenhotep III's wife. Akhenaten and I had six daughters, although the succession after his death is uncertain as there is no record of a male heir. Akhenaten's successors Smenkhkare and Tutankhaten were his children by another royal wife called Kiya, who became his principle queen for a short while after year 12 of his reign. I have taken a hitherto unprecedented level of importance in the Amarna period art. As in the example shown above from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, I am often shown making offerings to the Aten, and I am almost the Pharaohs equal in terms of status. As with Akhenaten there is no trace of my mummy. Some jewelry bearing my cartouche was found outside the royal tomb at Akhetaten but there is no real evidence that I was buried there. I may have been buried elsewhere, because from year 12 of Akhenaten's reign, I was banned from Akhetaten...As a Roman would say: Sic transit gloria mundi...