50 Fun Facts About Nefertiti

Nefertiti was the great royal wife of which pharaoh?

He began his reign under another name and changed it in his fifth year.

What does the name Nefertiti mean?

Some scholars once read the name as a hint she was a foreign princess, but there is no hard evidence.

To which dynasty of ancient Egypt did Nefertiti belong?

She lived from about 1370 to about 1330 BC.

Which sun-disc deity was at the centre of the religion Nefertiti and her husband promoted?

Atenism was exclusivist and possibly monotheistic, tied directly to the royal household.

To which new capital city, now called Amarna, did the royal couple move in the fourth year of the reign?

Boundary stelae from years 4 and 5 mark its limits.

How many daughters are Nefertiti and her husband known to have had?

Their names all honoured the sun disc, and one of them later married Tutankhamun.

Which of Nefertiti's daughters married Tutankhamun and became known as Ankhesenamun?

Meritaten, the eldest, married the shadowy king Smenkhkare.

What did genetic studies conclude about whether Nefertiti bore Tutankhamun?

She was once a candidate, but the mummy tests pointed elsewhere.

Which courtier, later pharaoh, is thought by many Egyptologists to have been Nefertiti's father because he bore the title 'God's Father'?

His wife Tey was 'Nurse of the Great Royal Wife', which suggests she was a stepmother rather than mother.

With which foreign princess, a Mitanni bride of the previous pharaoh, has Nefertiti sometimes been identified?

The theory rests partly on her name, but there is no hard evidence of a non-Egyptian background.

How does the number of depictions of Nefertiti compare with her husband's on the talatat blocks from the first five years of his reign?

That visibility is read as proof of her exceptional political importance.

What kingly act is Nefertiti shown performing in some scenes, an act normally reserved for pharaohs?

Captive enemies also decorate her throne.

By what throne name may Nefertiti have ruled briefly as a female pharaoh after her husband's death?

One of that pharaoh's cartouches carries the epithet 'Effective for her husband'.

A 2012 discovery of a quarry inscription dated to which regnal number proved Nefertiti was still alive far later than once thought?

It came from a limestone quarry at Deir Abu Hinnis and is also the last dated inscription naming the king.

By what name is Nefertiti called in the Hittite annals, according to one theory?

It is a rendering of the Egyptian title Ta hemet nesu, The King's Wife.

In which institution is the famous bust of Nefertiti displayed?

It returned there as the centrepiece when the museum reopened in October 2009.

Which sculptor's workshop at Amarna yielded the bust?

It may have been a sculptor's model used to teach pupils, which could explain the unfinished left eye.

Which German archaeologist led the team that found the bust on 6 December 1912?

His diary records: 'Suddenly we had in our hands the most alive Egyptian artwork. You must see it.'

What is the bust made of?

Borchardt wrongly told the Egyptian inspector it was gypsum.

How tall is the bust and how much does it weigh?

Roughly life size, with an exaggeratedly long neck under the heavy crown.

What is famously missing from the bust?

The right iris is inserted quartz painted black and fixed with beeswax; the left socket is bare limestone.

How is the bust identified as Nefertiti, given it carries no inscription?

She wears the same blue cap crown in labelled depictions such as the house altar.

How did Borchardt reportedly get the sculpture past the Egyptian antiquities inspector Gustave Lefebvre in 1913?

Egypt says he also misdescribed the material; the German side says the finds were divided fairly.

To which sponsor of the Amarna excavation was the bust presented when it reached Berlin in 1913?

It sat in his residence before he lent it, with other Amarna finds, to the Berlin Museum.

In what year was the bust first displayed to the public, triggering Egypt's demands for its return?

Egypt threatened to ban German excavations the following year unless it came home.

Which Nazi leader considered returning the bust to King Fuad I of Egypt as a political gesture in 1933?

Hitler vetoed the idea and promised instead to build a museum where Nefertiti would be enthroned.

Where was the bust hidden in March 1945 and then found by the American army?

It went to the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives branch, then spent ten years at Museum Wiesbaden.

What did a 2006 CT scan reveal beneath the stucco of the bust?

The sculptor smoothed creases and a bumped nose with his outer stucco layers; Science News called it proof the bust is genuine.

Roughly how many visitors see the bust each year?

It is the star exhibit used to market Berlin's museums and appeared on 1989 German stamps.

What controversial step did the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation take when it released a 3D scan of the bust?

The scan was prised loose by a 2016 freedom of information request.

In which Valley of the Kings sepulchre did Victor Loret find the 'Younger Lady' mummy in 1898, later proposed as Nefertiti?

Joann Fletcher made the claim in 2003; DNA later showed the Younger Lady was Tutankhamun's mother instead.

Which archaeologist announced in 2015 that scans showed voids behind the walls of Tutankhamun's tomb that might be Nefertiti's burial chamber?

Later radar scans found no hidden chambers.

Which Egyptian antiquities chief theorised that Nefertiti returned to Thebes to rule as pharaoh, based partly on feminine objects in Tutankhamun's tomb?

Several items in the boy king's tomb had been made for the burial of the female pharaoh and reinscribed.

What was Nefertiti's husband called before he changed his name in his fifth regnal year?

Nefertiti's own name was lengthened at the same time.

Which of Nefertiti's daughters is last shown alive around Year 12 and probably died in Year 13 or 14?

The Year 12 scenes in the tombs of Huya and Meryre II show a great foreign tribute.

Nefertiti had a sister named in the tombs of the Amarna nobles. What was her name?

Kiya was another wife of the king; Tiye was his mother.

To which cities was the capital returned when Tutankhaten became Tutankhamun and abandoned Amarna?

The name change signalled the return to the official worship of Amun.

What is the 'Nefertiti cap' she wears on the bust?

A golden diadem loops around it like ribbons and a now-broken cobra sits over her brow.

Which Swiss art historian argued in a book that the bust is a modern fake?

He noted no scientific records appear until 1923; the 2006 CT scan is generally taken to refute him.

Which organisation funded the 1912 Amarna dig that found the bust?

Its archives hold a memo recalling how Borchardt 'wanted to save the bust for us'.

Roughly when is the bust believed to have been made?

That places it around the middle of a 17-year reign at Amarna.

How old did CT scanning suggest the Elder Lady mummy, confirmed by DNA as Queen Tiye, was at death?

Her left arm was bent over her chest in the queenly pose; DNA showed she was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya.

Which woman bore the title 'Nurse of the Great Royal Wife' in the Amarna tombs?

Her husband Ay held the title 'God's Father', one reason many think Ay was Nefertiti's father.

Which structure at Karnak, built early in the reign, was dedicated to Nefertiti?

She is shown there with her daughter Meritaten, and sometimes Meketaten, taking part in rituals.

In the Year 12 tribute scenes, gifts came from Kharu in the north and which land in the south?

The inscriptions in the tombs of Huya and Meryre II show gold and precious items presented to the royal couple.

Which archaeologist excavated two representations of Nefertiti in the relaxed later Amarna style?

They appear to show the queen in the middle to later part of Akhenaten's reign.

Erasures once thought to show Nefertiti fell into disgrace were shown to refer to which other queen?

The discovery discredited the theory that Nefertiti had been disgraced late in the reign.

Which ancient-hair specialist announced in 2003 that the 'Younger Lady' mummy might be Nefertiti?

The University of York researcher's theory was criticised by Zahi Hawass and others.

What does the name Neferneferuaten, added to Nefertiti's name in Year 5, mean?

Her husband changed his own name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten at the same time.

The 'Elder Lady' and 'Younger Lady' mummies were found cached in the tomb of which pharaoh?

Victor Loret found them in 1898; the Elder Lady was later shown to be Queen Tiye.