The reason Nefertiti is considered the most beautiful queen in Egypt

Since the bust of Nefertiti's standardized figure was found, the life of the most beautiful queen in ancient Egyptian history has become a topic of interest to researchers.

The truth about Queen Nefertiti's beauty

Between the hot and windy sandy desert in Egypt one day in 1912, the German archaeological group led by Ludwig Borchardt excavated the forgotten city of Amarna. Borchardt discovered an amazingly beautiful bust buried in rubble, dating back more than 3,300 years, depicting the sharp face of a woman famous both in power and beauty of ancient Egypt, female Hoang Nefertiti.

Over a century since the statue was discovered, pieces of the magnificent life associated with the period of cultural and religious revolution in ancient Egypt, under the rule of her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten was gradually revealed.

Recently, the statement about Nefertiti's ability to find resting places created a wave of excitement sweeping through the global Egyptian learning community. In a statement in July, British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves said the queen's body could be in the room behind a secret, hidden entrance inside the Pharaoh Tutankhamun tomb, the son. grandma This passage, according to Reeves, was sealed beneath the painted walls and plastered with plaster.

Bust of one of the greatest beauty in history, Queen Nefertiti of ancient Egypt, displayed at the Neues Museum, Germany.(Photo: AFP).

Discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, King Tutankhamun's tomb is a shocking discovery with about 3,000 archaeological sites found, including the king's mummy and the famous gold mask on his face. However, Tutankhamun was a little-known king and died early, while Nefertiti was one of Egypt's most famous queens.

Therefore, if the archaeologist Reeves's hypothesis is correct, finding Nefertiti's resting place would be the discovery that eclipsed the previous discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb area, according to the Egyptian Antiquities Minister at the meeting. reported in October 2015.

"Nefertiti is considered Cleopatra in her time. Not only does she possess great beauty and wealth, she is also a very powerful woman," Michelle Moran, author of "Nefertiti", a novel. famous history of this queen said. "It would be a big shock if I really found the place of her body."

History of Egypt is not rare for powerful women to rule the country, but there is another reason that Nefertiti attracts the attention of the modern world.

"That is the beauty of the bust . You will see by the delicate features of the high neck, the thin, curved eyebrows with the queen's high cheekbones," Moran described the queen's bust. Nefertiti, currently on display at the Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany.

"If you live in modern times, Nefertiti can become a supermodel. The standards of beauty don't seem to change over time."

In fact, this legendary beauty also impressed the archaeologist Borchardt when he first saw the statue.

"Completely by chance, we have the most vivid work in Egypt. It is impossible to describe the beauty of the statue with words. There is only a direct way to contemplate, " Borchardt told the diary.

For hours watching the sharp and proud face of the queen was the inspiration that helped Moran to produce his novel Nefertiti.

"She was like creating magic. Looking at that face and you were fascinated by that beauty," Moran commented.

However, beauty is only part of Nefertiti's mysterious life story. In addition to the splendid beauty, Queen Nefertiti and her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten is also associated with a major turning point in ancient Egyptian culture. Akhenaten is also known as the 'heretic king' because of the dizzying changes he made right from the throne.

Reliefs depicting Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (or Akhenaten) with his wife Nefertiti the god of the Aten Sun, the 17th Dynasty, the new Kingdom.(Photo: The Guardian).

Because from 1352 to 1336 BC, this Pharaoh brought a new era to Egypt by eliminating polytheism and introducing religions to worship only the Sun Aten, which is considered a strange religion in this period. At the same time, Pharaoh changed the name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, to express devotion to the Aten Sun god. According to many experts, the failure of recognizing other gods of Egypt, especially the god Amun, of Akhenaten caused profound divisions of the long-standing power structure in the capital Thebes between the court and the priests. top.

Besides changing national beliefs, Akhenaten and his family, including his first wife Kiya, were also the same queen Nefertiti, moving the capital from Thebes (now Luxor city, Egypt) to the city. new, he named Akhetaten, more than 400km north of the Nile.

Not only at these drastic reforms, the Akhenaten dynasty also supported a new school of "rebellious" art . Far from the traditional art perspective built long ago in Egyptian history, the works of King Akhenaten aimed to describe people, animals as well as other objects in a more realistic and vivid way. many lines, imperfections and movement scenes. In particular, this period had the first works depicting scenes of rare emotional activity of the royal family.

This new expression art makes the scientific community quite surprised and leaves a strong impression on writers like Moran. She was especially touched by a relief depicting Queen Nefertiti with her children.

"The relief depicts the queen as a mother, lovingly placing her on the knee," Moran said.

The relief depicts Queen Nefertiti and her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten, as one of the works depicting the emotional life of the royal family rarely seen in ancient Egypt.(Photo: Corbis).

An important figure in Egypt's new era of art at the time was indispensable to be the royal sculptor Thutmose. It was at his crafting place that archaeologists discovered the bust of Queen Nefertiti.

More than 100 years after the ancient queen made believers love her stunning beauty because of her beautiful beauty, the technological advances eventually led to a more realistic image of her beauty.

In 2009, the bust was studied with sophisticated CT scanning technology, revealing that Thutmose had plastered a layer of plaster to conceal the original limestone pattern. The face of Nefertiti's concealed inside was more authentic with wrinkles running around the corners of his eyes, his cheekbones slightly angled and a small bump on his nose. Thanks to the last layer of mortar, Thutmose refined the contours and made the queen's face perfect. This is one of the most interesting stories about Nefertiti, according to Moran. This writer describes that the statue completion operation can be considered "ancient photoshop version".

To this day, the mysterious life of Queen Nefertiti is only pieced together from discrete pieces, with many doubts yet to be answered. Discovering the tomb containing the queen's body will be a leading clue to help scientists understand both the life of a talented woman and a period of reform in Egyptian history, mentioned by scholars. is the Amarna era, associated with the reign that Nefertiti and her husband rule.

According to the burial customs of the Egyptians, many everyday objects are buried to follow the dead to the afterlife. These sites were found both in the tombs of civilians and royal members, and in particular are still in good preservation. This is the basis for experts to gradually recreate the life of the ancient Egyptians.

Besides, the tomb once found will lead scientists to more accurate conclusions about the power family of the young dead king Tutankhamun. After Akhenaten's death, scholars believed that Egypt had removed the only cult of the Sun aten and moved the center of power back to Thebes. Many people still guess, after the king died, the queen came to power as Pharaoh, taking the title Smenkhkare.

"If Nerfertti is found, it will help answer a series of unanswered questions such as when and why the queen died, as well as speculate on how she came to the posthumous death after her death. husband, " Moran said.