“The Blind Queen”: how truly beautiful Nefertiti was

So, from this bust, archaeologists assume that Nefertiti had the rights of a pharaoh, but this is not certain.

One of the biggest controversies surrounding the bust concerned the queen’s empty eye, the sculpture’s only flaw. There are many theories about this: starting with the fact that someone planned to insult the queen in this way, and finally that Nefertiti suffered from some kind of eye disease. But the most romantic theory says that the sculptor Thutmose fell in love with Nefertiti and she rejected him. In retaliation, he removed one of her eyes to symbolize the fact that she was blind to the true manifestation of her feelings.

Nefertiti married early – she was around 12 to 15 years old, and her husband Amenhotep was not much older. Their main goal was to change the existing religious system, a religious reform that will go down in history as athonism – the worship of the supreme deity of the Sun, Aten.

In the tomb of Pharaoh Aye, one of the inscriptions is dedicated to Nefertiti: “She leads Aten to rest with a gentle voice and beautiful hands near the sisters, at the sound of her voice they rejoice. »

During their 12 years of marriage, the royal couple had six daughters, and everything seemed to be going well for them, until Nefertiti suddenly, without warning, disappeared from all manuscripts and historical references. It was as if she had disappeared into thin air.

And that’s where the fun begins. Until 2012, Egyptologists did not know what happened to the queen: they assumed that she was seriously injured, or even died, due to the plague that raged in the city at that time. There was a theory that Nefertiti fell from grace, but this, according to historians, is very unlikely. It was known that someone had erased the name of the pharaoh’s wife from monuments, but historians later determined that this was done with his second wife Kiya, not Nefertiti.

The latter enjoyed unlimited power and honor. In the twelfth year of her reign, she could have been promoted to co-ruler status, thus becoming pharaoh. But where did she go?

In 2012, archaeologists discovered a tablet dated to the 15th year of the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep. The five-line inscription, written in red ocher, mentions the presence of “the Great Royal Wife, his beloved, mistress of two lands, Neferneferuaten Nefertiti”. Most likely, Neferneferuaten is the new name of Queen Nefertiti.

This inscription offers irrefutable proof that Amenhotep and Nefertiti were still alive and occupied the same positions.

Most likely, his mother has not yet been found. Or maybe she has been found, and is one of the women from the Valley of the Kings tomb from the New Kingdom era. She is around 45 years old; During her life, she suffered from spinal curvature and club feet.

One of the statues discovered in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose depicts Nefertiti in her declining years. The walking queen is dressed in a tight dress and has sandals on her feet.

And in one of the sculpture workshops a mask was found, taken from Nefertiti in her declining years. The mask having been sculpted, it is impossible to determine whether it comes from a dead or living woman.

Photo: Getty Images, Legion Media