Queen Ankhesenamun.

King Tutankhamun was married when he was very young, probably little more than ten years old. The reason for this was that the Egyptian king was expected to have a wife (sometimes more than one) who would have helped him to carry out some of the official religious duties of his office. Tutankhamun married Ankhesenaten, one of the daughters of his father Akhenaten and his stepmother Queen Nefertiti, so she was his half-sister! She was a little older than Tutankhamun himself. Later, Ankhesenaten changed her name to Ankhesenamun, "She lives (ankhes) for (en) the god Amun (amun)".


The photograph shows Queen Ankhesenamun and King Tutankhamun, a detail of the decoration on the golden shrine found in Tutankhamun's tomb. Burton photo. 314A. © Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.


Back to Chariot to Heaven
or
Back to The Sphinx Nose.