Ankhesenamun: The Forgotten Queen of Egypt’s Golden Age
Ankhesenamun was one of ancient Egypt’s most mysterious queens. Ankhesenamun was an ancient Egyptian queen who lived during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. She had been the third of six known daughters of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. She was made the Great Royal Wife of Tutankhamun. The change in her name reflects the changes in ancient Egyptian religion during her lifetime after her father’s death. Her youth is well documented in the ancient reliefs and paintings of the reign of her parents.
Ankhesenamun was well recorded as being the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. First, she is possibly married to her father, and it is possible that when Tutankhamun died, she was briefly married to her Tutankhamun successor, Ay, who is suspected by some to be her maternal grandfather.
Ankhesenamun handing an arrow to seated Tutankhamun
Early Life Background of Ankhesenamun
Ankhesenpaaten was born in a time when Egypt was in the midst of an unprecedented religious revolution (c. 1348 BC). Her parents had abandoned the principal worship of old deities of Egypt in favour of the Aten, who was a minor aspect of the sun-god, and was characterised as the sun’s disc.
She is believed to have been born in Thebes, around year 4 of her father’s reign, but probably grew up in the city of Akhetaten (present-day Amarna), established as the new capital of the kingdom by her parents. She, along with her two older sisters ( Meritaten and Meketaten ), became the “senior princesses” and participated in many functions of the government and religion alongside their parents.
Later Life Background
Because some inscriptions record the existence of Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit, it has been suggested that Ankhesenamun may have married her own father and had children with him. However, father–daughter marriages were extremely rare in the Egyptian royal family and were often interpreted as ceremonial unions. She was never referred to as her father’s wife, and at the time of Akhenaten’s death, she was not old enough to conceive and bear children. Moreover, Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit is only attested in a very specific context—namely, during the usurpation of Kiya’s monuments—suggesting that she may have been a fictional creation designed to minimise alterations to the inscriptions.
Marriage to Tutankhamun
After her father’s death and the short reigns of Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten, she became the wife of Tutankhamun. After their marriage, the couple honoured the deities of the restored religion by changing their names to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun. The couple seem to have lost two stillborn daughters. The fetuses were most probably the daughters of Ankhesenamun since she was the only known woman who had been married to Tutankhamun. At about 18 years of age, somewhere in the 9th year of his reign, Tutankhamun died suddenly, leaving Ankhesenamun alone and without an heir, somewhere during his age of 21.
Tutankhamun
The Mysterious Letter to the Hittites
A document was found in the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa, dating back to the Amarna period. The document, which was part of the so-called Deeds of Suppiluliuma I, relates that Hittite ruler Suppiluliuma I, while laying siege to Karkemish, received a letter from the Egyptian queen. The letter reads:
My husband has died and I have no son. They say about you that you have many sons. You might give me one of your sons to become my husband. I would not wish to take one of my subjects as a husband… I am afraid.
This document is considered extraordinary, as Egyptians traditionally considered foreigners to be inferior. Suppiluliuma I was amazed and exclaimed to his courtiers:
Nothing like this has happened to me in my entire life!
Suppiluliuma sent an envoy to investigate and eventually sent one of his sons, Zannanza, but the prince died en route, perhaps being murdered.
The identity of the queen who wrote the letter is uncertain. In the Hittite annals, she is called Dakhamunzu, a transliteration of the Egyptian title, Tahemetnesu (The King’s Wife). Possible candidates for the author of the letter are Nefertiti, Meritaten, and Ankhesenamun. Ankhesenamun once seemed likely since there were no royal candidates for the throne on the death of her husband, Tutankhamun, whereas Akhenaten had at least two legitimate successors. But this was based on a 27-year reign for the last pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, Horemheb, who is now accepted to have had a shorter reign of only 14 years.
Since Nefertiti was depicted as powerful as her husband in official monuments smiting Egypt’s enemies, researcher Nicholas Reeves believes she might be the Dakhamunzu in the Amarna correspondence. That would make the subject deceased Egyptian king, appear to be Akhenaten rather than Tutankhamun.
As noted, Akhenaten had potential heirs, including Tutankhamun, to whom Nefertiti could be married. Other researchers focus upon the phrase regarding marriage to ‘one of my subjects’ (translated by some as ‘servants’) as possibly a reference to the Grand Vizier Ay or a secondary member of the Egyptian royal family line, however, and that Ankhesenamun may have been being pressured by Ay to marry him and legitimize his claim to the throne of Egypt (which she eventually did).
Her Disappearance
After the death of Tutankhamun, records of Ankhesenamun almost completely vanish. Many scholars believe she was forced to marry Ay, her former advisor, to legitimise his claim to the throne. Her name appears alongside his on a few artefacts, but after that, she disappears from history.
Ay pharaoh
The way and time of her death are unknown. There are theories that she was possibly murdered, with other theories indicating that she naturally died and was interred in a now lost tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Her legacy remains even though she disappeared but she left behind a life of the most fascinating woman in ancient Egypt.
Mummy KV21A
DNA testing announced in February 2010 has generated speculation that Ankhesenamun is one of two 18th Dynasty queens recovered from KV21 in the Valley of the Kings.
The two fetuses found buried with Tutankhamun have been proven to be his children, and the current theory is that Ankhesenamun, his only known wife, is their mother. However, not enough data was obtained to make more than a tentative identification. Nevertheless, the KV21a mummy has DNA consistent with the 18th Dynasty royal line.
Tutankhamun & Ankhsenamun
Popular culture of Ankhesenamun
Ankhesenamun’s name has entered popular culture as the secret love of the priest Imhotep in the 1932 film The Mummy. The 1999 remake, its sequel, and its spin-off television series used the name Anck-su-namun, while other movies like The Mummy’s Hand (1940) and the unrelated 1959 film named the character Ananka.
Ankhsenpaaten/Ankhsenamun is the heroine protagonist of the novel The Lost Queen of Egypt, written by Lucille Morrison in 1937, detailing a fictionalised version of the princess’s life before and after marriage to Tutankhamen.
Ankhesenamun is the protagonist of the 1988 French novel La Reine Soleil by Christian Jacq, as well as its 2007 animated adaptation.
Archaeological Clues and Modern Theories
Archaeologists continue to search for clues about Ankhesenamun’s final resting place. In 2017, new radar scans near Tutankhamun’s tomb revealed a possible hidden chamber, which some speculated could belong to her. While this remains unconfirmed, the discovery renewed public fascination with her story.
Her life has inspired books, documentaries, and films, each imagining what might have happened to Egypt’s lost queen. To this day, Ankhesenamun remains a symbol of beauty, tragedy, and resilience.
Conclusion
Ankhesenamun’s life tells a story of love, loss, and survival in a time of great change. She saw the decline of the religious revolution of her father, was next to one of the most well-known kings in Egypt, and had to go alone to overcome the risks of the royal politics. Despite the fact that history has forgotten her destiny, her name still reverberates over time as one of the most mysterious queens in ancient Egypt.
