Before the death of Amenophis III he seems to have adopted the frequent Egyptian habit of associating his son with him on the throne, though the latter was probably young, as Queen Tyi appears to have acted as regent after her husband’s death. Also, at the time of his death, the father was negotiating for a marriage between his heir and a Mitannian princess, the same country from which had come Queen Tyi herself, and the wife of Thothmes IV. That the existing relationship gave the new queen some title to the throne is proved by her being spoken of as “the great heiress, princess of all women,” and “the princess of South and North, the lady of both lands,” which imply hereditary rights, possibly through the mother.

She was the daughter of Dushratta, King of Mitanni, and it may have been that her father was Queen Tyi’s brother and she herself the cousin of Amenophis IV, but the matter is not absolutely clear. A certain Dushratta, not satisfied about the safety of his sister, who had married Amenophis III, had sent to Egypt to inquire after her, but the repetition or duplication of a name often makes it difficult to decide upon the exact relationship. From the letters found on tablets in the ruins of Tel-el-Amarna, many of which of course are broken and imperfect, we have chiefly derived the information we possess of these transactions. Queen Tyi seems also to have held the power for a brief period at Tel-el-Amarna, but exactly when this was the case has not been discovered.

In her own country the bride-elect bore the name of Tadukipa, but in Egypt she became Nefert-Thi, Nefertity, or Nefertiti, her full name being known as Aten’nefer’ neferu’nefertiti. After the death of Amenophis III Queen Tyi sent word of this event to the Babylonish prince, and some correspondence took place between them before matters were finally settled and Amenophis IV or Napkhurruiya, as he is called in the letters, was married and assumed full control of his own affairs. There was, of course, an exchange of presents, gold, slaves, etc., as was usual on such occasions, and no failure on either side of a satisfactory pecuniary showing seems to have interfered with the prospects of the youthful pair, such as had been known, not unfrequently, in other cases.

The beautiful, deserving or undeserving, are apt to win favor. By this rule therefore the pictures of King Khu-n-aten or Aten’ nefer’neferu and Queen Nefertiti are sufficiently ugly to prejudice the most casual observer. One is tempted to see in these hideous effigies rather the work of a defamer than a true portrait. Early pictures of the king are handsome and not unlike some of Rameses II, the change is attributed by late writers to the new style of art to be seen in his reign. Certainly the king sacrificed himself nobly to the cause of Truth, if he was a consenting party to his own portraiture.

It is believed that the accession of Khu-n-aten took place in the thirty-first year of his father’s reign, in the month Pakhons, or February, and that his marriage occurred in the month Epiphi, or May, four years later. In his sixth year he abandoned the god Amon, or Amen, and adopted the Aten worship. In his sixth year also, after the birth of his second daughter, came the change of name and facial type at Thebes, Maat only of the old divinities seems to have been retained. The pictures of this period show rays of sunbeams terminating in tiny hands which support the bodies, crowns, etc., of the royal pair.

From first to last the queen is closely associated with her husband, constantly pictured with him, a true companion and helpmate, a faithful guardian of his children, and a devoted daughter to his mother, possibly her aunt, whose name, in part, she seems to have taken. As Kidijah upheld and supported Mahomet in the promulgation of his newly received revelation, so did Nefertiti accept and lend her wifely aid to the faith of her husband and his mother.

A prayer or address to the rising sun is attributed to her and shows the religious fervor with which she was penetrated.

“Thou disk of the sun, thou living god! there is none other beside thee! Thou givest health to the eyes through thy beams, creator of all beings. Thou goest up on the eastern horizon of the heavens to dispense life to all whom thou hast created; to man, to four-footed beasts, birds and all manner of creeping things on the earth, when they live. Thus they behold thee and they go to sleep when thou settest.

“Grant to thy son who loves thee life in truth to the Lord of the land that he may live united with thee in eternity.

“Behold his wife the queen Nefert-i-Thi, may she live forevermore and eternally by his side, well pleasing to thee she admires what thou hast created day by day. He (the king) rejoices at the sight of thy benefits. Grant him a long existence as king of the land.”

At Heliopolis the sun-god Ra had been specially worshipped. He was pictured hawk-headed, surmounted by disk and uraeus, hence with priests at Heliopolis the king may have been in greater sympathy than with those at other points, where the various gods were worshipped. It is possible, too, that they were less antagonistic to him than the others, or may even have supported him. Be that as it may, at Heliopolis Khu-n-aten built a temple. The shrine received gifts from Pharaoh after Pharaoh and was very wealthy. It also had at one time an immense library. “The city,” says Strabo, who came to it shortly after the Christian Era, “is situated upon a large mound. It contains the Temple of the Sun,” probably a later one than that of Amenophis IV, “and the Ox Mnevis, which is kept in a sanctuary, and is regarded by the inhabitants as a god.” Says Pollard, “The temple had three courts, each one probably adorned with obelisks, which were so numerous that one was called ‘The City of Obelisks.’ Pharaohs of different dynasties erected a pair of obelisks in the temple of the Sun as an offering and a memorial. After the third court came the Naos, with its outer chamber or holy place and its inner or holy of holies, in which was the shrine with the symbol of the deity. Strabo tells us that the ox Mnevis was kept in the sanctuary.”

Six daughters, one after another, enlarged the family circle of the palace “a garland of princesses,” as they have been poetically called. They constantly appear in the pictures with their parents and even attended their father in his expeditions in his chariot. Their names are given as Mi-aten or Mut-aten, Mak-aten, Anknes-aten, Nofru-aten, or Nofrura, Ta-shera, Satem-en-ra and Bek-aten, some doubt seems to exist as to whether the last was daughter or grand-daughter of Queen Tyi. A standing figure of this princess, at which the artists are still seen chiselling from life, under the eye of the queen’s overseer, Putha, by name, is among the various wall paintings. Perhaps she was an especial darling, this youngest child, or she may have had a particularly beautiful face and form; but the temple walls were said to have been nearly covered with the pictures of the king, queen and princess. Aten-en-aten or Khu-n-aten’s feelings towards his family were tinged with all a lover’s enthusiasm. His words have a poetic cast.

“The beams of the sun’s disk shone over him with a pure light so as to make young his body daily.

“Therefore King Khu-n-aten swore an oath to his father thus: Sweet love fills my heart for the queen, for her young children. Grant a great age to the queen Nofrit-Thi in long years; may she keep the hand of Pharaoh. Grant a great age to the royal daughter Meri-aten and to the royal daughter Mak-aten and to their children, may they keep the hand of the queen their mother eternally and forever.

“What I swear is a true avowal of what my heart says to me. Never is there falsehood in what I say,” and he ends a long inscription, relative to the setting up of various memorial tablets with, “These memorial tablets which were placed in the midst had fallen down. I will have them raised up afresh and have them placed again in the situation in which they were (previously). This I swear to do in the 8th year, in the month Tybi, on the 9th day the king was in Khuaten and Pharaoh mounted on his court chariot of polished copper to behold the memorial tablets of the disk of the sun which are on the hills of the territory to the south-east of Khu-aten.” And perhaps the queen and the eldest daughters followed him to make this investigation. Brugsch says the inscriptions on these tablets were first found and published by Prisse d’Avennes.

The series of tablets discovered at Tel-el-Amarna in 1888 are chiefly in the museums of London, Berlin, Paris and St. Petersburgh, with a few at Gizeh. One letter is from a lady who styles herself “the handmaid” of the king and others relate to the exchange of presents and slaves, men and girls.

Another beloved member of this amiable family was the princess Notem-Mut, younger sister of the queen, who seems quite to have been counted in. She, too, had a special palace built for her, and married Horem-heb or Ho-rem-hib, not of royal birth, but who eventually became the last king of this, the Eighteenth Dynasty. He may have had two wives, or else Notem-mut changed her name, as we read also of a queen Ese as his spouse.

The temples and palaces were of a somewhat different style of architecture from the usual Egyptian form, but they were beautiful, with their open courts, and calculated for the needs of those who were to occupy them, as well as for the character of the country and climate. The names of the artists and architects are preserved, which is not usually the case, and their talent seems to have descended in the family, for we learn that a certain Bek, overseer, artist and teacher of the king, was a grandson of Hor-amoo, who had served in the same office under Amenophis III.

“The tombstone of the artist, Bek,” says Brugsch, “was put up for sale some years ago in the open market place in Cairo. My respected friend, Mr. L. Vassali, bought it, and was good enough to give me an exact drawing of the carving upon it and a paper impression of the inscription.”

The wall pictures that were found in the tombs present the king and queen seated on a balcony with their eldest children, the baby in the mother’s lap, enduring certain officials with the necklace of honor and casting down presents to the crowd. A pleasant sport, enjoyed in common by the whole family party. Queen Tyi, the chief of the women’s department, named Hai, the steward, the treasurer and other members of the court, also shared in the fun.

Another picture gives the king and queen worshipping the sun, accompanied by two of their daughters, showing clearly that all the duties and pleasures of life were shared in this amiable family. A touch of Nature makes us all kin, and this recalls the picture one often sees of domestic life among the Germans, where father, mother and children go off for a picnic or a frolic together, while the Frenchman perhaps is in the cafÉ alone.

The Egyptians were highly skilled in pottery and faience; fine glazing on pottery, stone and in enamels on goldsmith work is shown at the beginning of the New Empire. Tel-el-Amarna seems to have been quite celebrated for its pottery and the fabrication of delicate enamels, of which many specimens, in a great variety of colors, have been found. The vase of Queen Tyi, preserved in the Boulak Museum, is grey and blue. Olive-shaped amulets of the kings and princesses of this family show delicate blue hieroglyphics on a mauve ground, while the potters of the time of Amenophis III are said to have been particularly fond of violets and greys.

Less warlike than the majority of his predecessors, we still read of some fighting during Aten-aten’s or Khu-n-aten’s reign and victories over the Syrians and other nations, which the king, though probably not taking the field himself, celebrated with the customary festival. He appears in “the full Pharaonic attire, adorned with the insignia of his rank, on his lion throne, carried on the shoulders of his warriors. At his side walk servants, who, with long fans, wave the cool air upon their heated lord.” This was in the twelfth year of his reign, on the 18th day of the month Mekhir, December. The crook, whip, and sickle-shaped sword were emblems of royalty, while of the New Empire was a canopy raised on wooden pillars, colored and ornamented, with a thick carpet on seat, footstool and floor. On ordinary occasions the king was probably carried in a sort of Sedan chair of splendid appearance.

Later occurred the marriages of some of the daughters, and as no son was born, two at least of the sons-in-law seem to have ruled in succession, and it is pleasant to be able to believe that this was peacefully accomplished, without the family jars and broils so often coincident with the dividing of a heritage. In modern parlance the ladies do not seem to have made very brilliant matches. No foreign prince or monarch is recorded as being an accepted suitor. “Home talent” was strictly patronized, and the sons of high officials were deemed suitable parties, who by right of their wives it would seem, succeeded each other as king. Their reigns were short enough for each to have a turn as the pleasant task of ruling.

Several of his daughters, as well as his wife, waited on Khu-n-aten in his last illness; Nefertiti survived him and may have lived till the time of Horem-heb, or even to that of Sety I. The tomb of the king was seven miles from the river in one of the great valleys which open on the plain of Tel-el-Amarna, the situation resembling that of Amenophis III at Thebes. That he was mourned deeply, at least by those nearest and dearest to him, there can be little doubt, yet his children soon turned from the religion he had tried to establish, to the earlier worship, in its form of devotion to many gods, under the semblance of various animals. The slabs found at Memphis, the stele at Sakkarah, and the remains of the great temple at Tel-el-Amarna, twenty-five feet square, the enclosure nearly half a mile long, all speak of this king.

Statues of him, his wife and Queen Tyi have been found, a beautiful and perfect one of the king is in the Louvre, and there is a death mask, which, among his various names, speaks of him as the “lord of the sweet wind.” Fragments of the stele with which his palace was decorated are to be seen in some of the museums in Europe, also in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania, and perhaps at other points in this country.

It seems to have been the sons-in-law who took chief authority, after Khu-n-aten’s death, and not the queen. She survived her husband for years. Her palace had a court, or harim, with glazed tiles, the walls painted with scenes, and the floor with pools, birds, cattle and wild plants. In the court was a fine well with a canopy on carved columns, and round coping, and an inscription with the queen’s titles. In the temple offerings of flowers were made and hymns sung to the accompaniment of harps, it was perhaps a return to the practice of the earliest times, and one writer suggests that its simplicity points to the Vedism of India. The queen and her daughters are shown waiting on the king in his illness. There is a fine fragment of a statue of the queen at Amherst college, and a gold ring and some other personal belongings at other places. With the death mask of the king in the University of Pennsylvania are some fragments from Tel-el-Amarna giving the names and title of Queen Nefertiti. Khu-n-aten is thought by late discoveries to have reigned seventeen or eighteen years.

As usual authorities differ, some giving Ai as the immediate successor of Khu-n-aten, others placing before him several kings, and numbering him just before Horem-heb, Horem-hib or Horus, the last monarch of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Some again refuse to recognize the heretic king and his descendants at all, and consider Horem-hib, who had returned to the polytheistic creed, as the true and direct successor of Amenophis III. It seems likely, however, that the eldest daughter, Mut-aten, born in the fourth year of her father’s reign was married just before his death to Re’smenkh’ka and that her husband was, for a time, co-regent. Both his and her name have been found on a tomb, these tomb inscriptions always throwing great light on this history of the time to which they refer. If, as estimated, she was thirteen at the time of her marriage and twenty-five at her husband’s death, he reigned over twelve years.

The second daughter, Mak-aten, died before her father, between her ninth and eleventh years; her tomb is in a side chapel of her father’s and the family are shown mourning for her, but she appears in the picture of the six princesses. Anknes-aten or Ankh s’en’pa’aten was born in the eighth year of her father’s reign and was ten years of age at his death. In her sister’s reign she was married to Tut-ankh’aten and changed her name to Ankh’s’en’amen, “her life is from Amen,” showing that already the changes her father had made were discarded. A few rings belonging to her remain, but with the exception of these relics nothing more is known of the other daughters, also nothing is known beyond figures and names on general monuments. Of Ras’ Ra’smenka or Ra’smenkh’ka’ser’kheperu, husband of the eldest daughter of Queen Nefertiti it is believed that he abandoned the palace in his third year of sovereignty and perhaps went to Thebes; there are few remains of him, but the dates are estimated as 1368-1358 B. C.

Tut’ankh-Amon or Twet-Ankh-Amon, “the living image of Aman” and husband of Anknes-amon, transferred his residence to Thebes (which, after all, had suffered little from the rivalry of Tel-el-Amarna), hastily finished the great hall and had it decorated with reliefs, representing the great festival which occurred at Luxor on New Year’s Day, when the sacred boats were brought up in procession, on the Nile, from Karnak, and carried into the temple. In these reliefs, of course, the king’s name largely figured, but, in the not uncommon fashion of these various monarchs, his brother-in-law, who later succeeded him, King Horem-heb, freely substituted his own name. A picture of King Tut’ankh Amon holding court and receiving a negro queen, either as a visitor or as offering tribute, was found on the wall of a tomb. The royal lady was depicted in a chariot, drawn by oxen and surrounded by her servants, a prototype of a later visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. From the north also came the ruddy princes of the land of Ruthen, with curly black hair and in rich dresses. The two governors of the South and North, Hi and Amenhotep, also came; they had served under Amenophis III and must have been of ripe years. Brugsch calls it “a large and lively picture of the manners and riches of the South and of the North in the fifteenth century, before Christ.” All bring rich gifts and ask for peace and friendship between themselves and the great Pharaoh.

King Ai was probably husband of one of the daughters, though his wife is elsewhere spoken of as the foster-mother of King Khu-n-aten, which seems rather hopelessly to mix up the chronology. In this case she is spoken of as Thi, the beloved name of that king’s own mother. They are also called respectively “the dressers of the king,” and “the high nurse, the nourishing mother of the godlike one.” Ai’s fine tomb at Tel-el-Amarna gives an account of his marriage. The tomb was never entirely finished; it is described by one traveller as having a sepulchral hall, beautifully painted, with colors still fresh and brilliant, with the sarcophagus standing in the middle, among the pictures, the king painted red and the queen of a pale yellow, are shown gathering lotus flowers; also the king being presented by the goddesses Mat and Hathor to Osiris. Perhaps two wives shared the honor of sovereignty with King Ai, or the second may have been espoused after the death of the first, and it seems likely the latter was much her husband’s junior.

Maspero gives a description of the palace of King Ai, also pictured on the walls of the Tel-el-Amarna tombs. He calls him the son-in-law of Khu-en-aten. “An oblong tank with sloping sides and two descending flights of steps, faces the entrance. The building is rectangular, the width being somewhat greater than the depth. A large doorway opens in the front, and gives access to a court planted with trees, and flanked by storehouses, fully stocked with provisions. Two small courts, placed symmetrically in the two further corners, contain the staircases, which lead up to the terrace. This first building, however, is but the frame which surrounds the owner’s dwelling. The two frontages are much adorned with a pillared portico and a pylon. Passing the outer door, one enters a sort of central passage, divided by two walls, pierced with doorways, so as to form three successive courts. The inside court is bordered by chambers, the two others open to right and left upon two smaller courts, whence flights of steps lead up to the terraced roof. This central building is called the ‘Akhonuti,’ or private dwelling of kings and nobles, to which only the family or intimate friends had access.”

All this, of course, varied in different cases with the taste of the owner, and the long, straight wall in front was sometimes divided and ornamented with colonnades and towers.

The old religion was resuming its sway, and the priests of Amon regaining their lost influence. They accepted the rule of Tut’ankh-Amon, whose monuments are said to extend only from Memphis to Thebes, and still more that of Ay, who was a true worshipper of the old gods. His reign, however, is spoken of as “feeble,” and the principal monument of the time is a shrine, high up in the face of cliffs, behind Ekhmin. King Ay seemed to have a special passion for tomb building, as there are no less than three attributed to him. The first at Tel-el-Amarna, the last at Thebes, coincident probably with his complete change of religious views and associations.

Ay died and left no children, and was succeeded by Horem-heb, or Horem-hib, who then was, or subsequently became, his uncle by a marriage with the Princess Notem-Mut, or Nezem-Mut, sister of Queen Nefertiti. The history of this time is, as yet, far from clear, and dates which fit in approximately to one set of theories, refuse to combine with others; some hold that Queen Nefertiti had been originally sent to Egypt to be the bride of Amenophis III, and that his death occurring before her arrival, she then became the wife of his son. This last arrangement, judging by the probable years of the parties, was more natural, and the union seemed to have proved a most happy one, as all the pictures show complete concord of interest and sentiment between the two. Defaced pictures of both Queen Tyi and Queen Nefertiti are found in the tombs, and the mummy of King Khu-n-aten was found in the tomb of Amenophis II, where it had, probably been removed to avoid spoliation, his tomb having been originally elsewhere.

King Horem-heb seems first to have been a renowned general in the army, and though not of royal birth, his horoscope foretold for him great success. The earlier histories of him say that he was a special favorite of King Khu-n-aten, who made him guardian of the kingdom, which position, so near the throne, suggests opportunities to win the heart of the princess. The god Amon, it is said, brought her to him, “the crown prince Horem-hib,” and the inscription adds, “she bowed herself and embraced his pleasant form, and placed herself before him.” Was it perchance on account of this kind service of the god that they both espoused his religion so fervently, or did the priests tamper with the princess and she inspire her lover with enthusiasm for the old beliefs?

This romantic history, however, loses somewhat of its glamour under the realistic touches and conclusions of later students. The princess was a priestess of Amon, and the marriage of the two, it is claimed, was merely a political one, both king and queen being between fifty and sixty at the time of their union. The kind offices of the god may be, so to speak, mythologically considered. The long account which gives an exultant story of his coronation, prejudges the fact that both the king and queen were zealous supporters of the ancient religion, and again Thebes became the royal city. The work of Khu-n-aten there was destroyed and a new temple built. At Karnak, as was frequently the wont of the kings, Horem-hib built with materials taken from a ruined temple of Amenophis II. He also built a rock temple at Silsilis, where inscriptions certify to his victories.

The pictures of this king and his mother Sonit, at a banquet, where some of the company were of the living, some of the dead, has been described in an earlier chapter, as also the statues of himself and his wife, he with a handsome, melancholy face, she also handsome, but with a touch of sarcasm in her smile. Her likeness has been ascribed to other queens.

The group of Horem-hib and the god Amon, in the Turin Museum, is pronounced to be “dry in treatment,” while the colossi in red granite, against his pylon at Karnak, the bas-reliefs at Silsilis, and the portrait statue just referred to are deemed by the same critic “faultless.” Other wall decorations show the king conferring the insignia of the Golden Collar upon a certain Nefer-hotep of Thebes. He is sometimes improperly called Horus, while Manetho by this name refers to Khu-n-aten.

Of Queen Nezem-mut there are not many remains, and these may be briefly enumerated. She figures in the tomb of Ay in a family group; there is the statue of her with the King at Turin; she appears as a female sphinx as given by Rosellini, there is a scarab at Berlin, and a frog with her name at Abydos. Since, with the reign of Horem-hib the eighteenth dynasty concludes, and so little is to be found as regards his wife, we have included her brief history with that of her sister, Queen Nefertiti, in the present chapter. A new dynasty, the nineteenth, succeeded, while some authorities maintain that the early members of the Ramesside family were contemporary with Horem-hib.