The most famous of the most beautiful women who have ever visited our sinful land is the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. And I must admit that it is considered by right. Only the smartest of all real beauties, Cleopatra, can be compared with her in fame - the last queen of Egypt, the wife of Mark Antony and the mistress of Julius Caesar, whose beauty was not distorted even by death from a poisonous snake bite. But if we can judge about the external merits of Cleopatra solely by the descriptions of her contemporaries and the peculiar vision of her appearance by such masters of the brush as G. Tiepolo, Rubens and others, then we will be able to appreciate the unearthly beauty of Nefertiti in the very near future. And the computer will help us with this, in whose abilities there is no doubt.
"The Great Egyptian Queen", as her subjects called her, was the wife of Amenhotep IV (Anaton), the predecessor, and according to some sources even the father, the famous Tutankhamun. There is evidence that Nefertiti was also the half-sister of Amenhotep IV. The approximate date of her death is 1336 BC. Then the queen was only 28-29 years old. Scientists made this conclusion on the basis of the fact that it was at that time that the name of the queen suddenly disappeared from the official documents of Ancient Egypt.
The legend of the beauty of Nefertiti began to spread during her lifetime. Her name means "Beauty is coming." However, after the implementation of the religious reform by Amenhotep IV, in which the queen took an active part, her name was transformed into Nefer-Neferu-Aton, which means "The beautiful beauty of Aton." And she was also called "The Lady of Joy."
The flattery of the palace intriguers was the talk of the town at all times and among all peoples. They could convince a feeble-minded ruler of his exceptional thinking abilities, and a smug ugly woman of her unsurpassed beauty. But time passes, and we carefully examine the portraits of the crowned heads. And where is that beauty that the court poets sang? Even with the artist's obvious flattery, we find it difficult to find attractiveness in the guise of an arrogant and narcissistic ruler. However, the same cannot be said about Nefertiti. Yes, in the proud manner of her gaze and the majestic fit of her head, there is either arrogance, or confidence in her exclusivity, but this is supported by the natural perfection of her amazing external data.
In 1912, during excavations in El Amarna, the workshop of the ancient Egyptian sculptor Thutmes was discovered. It was in it that they found several sculptural portraits of Nefertiti, now kept in museums in Cairo and Berlin. The bust of the queen (located in Berlin) received the greatest success. The grace and perfection of Nefertiti's appearance brought her worldwide fame.
But the sensational find at El Amarna was preceded by another very significant event. In 1898, the French archaeologist Victor Llore discovered a well-preserved mummy of a woman of clearly royal origin. Since then, for over 100 years, this mummy has been gathering dust in the niche of the hall of the Cairo Museum next to the mummy of Pharaoh Akhenaten II, resting in the original sarcophagus. The female mummy was given the serial number 61070 and was even given the name "Elderly Woman". Why "elderly"? And because where the coffin with this mummy was found, there was another mummy of a younger woman, who was named "Young Woman". Museum workers and historians, who had constant access to the exhibits of the museum, and gave the description of the older mummy: "Middle-aged woman."
The mummy has perfectly preserved rich hair. A bundle of identical hair was subsequently found among the personal belongings of Tutankhamun in his tomb, indicating a close relationship between these historical characters. In turn, this very tuft of hair sent scientists on the wrong path: they considered the "Elderly Woman" Queen Tiyya, who is considered the grandmother of Tutankhamun. Grandma was in her early 40s when she died. By the way, the height of the woman, who is now mummy No. 61070, was only 145 centimeters, but in the XIV century BC. such a woman was not considered small.
However, there was a man - the English historian and archaeologist Sir Grafton Elliot Smith - who doubted the information that was considered absolutely correct and insisted on laboratory tests of the bones and hair of the "Old Woman". The results were shocking: the "older woman" was about 29 years old at the time of her death! Such a strange coincidence alerted scientists, and they were imbued with an unquenchable passion for identifying the mummy. The comparison of the external features of the mummy with the bust of Nefertiti from the Berlin Museum by the sculptor Thutmes put everything in its place. This bust is painted and almost completely completed by a sculptor. Only the left eye socket is left empty. The whites of the eyes, iris, and pupils in ancient Egyptian sculptural portraits were usually inlaid with alabaster, crystal and ebony. And Nefertiti had only his right eye completed,from which it can be concluded that this was done on purpose, for the queen at that moment was in full health. In Egypt, it was believed that the opening of the eyes revived the soul of an already dead person.
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The portrait similarities between the mummy and the bust of Nefertiti are striking. They are united by the elongated shape of the skull, the size and shape of the eyes, straight noses, the same upper lips, etc. The final conclusion of scientists is a matter of time, although even the most incorrigible skeptics no longer doubt its results. The mummy is perfectly preserved, which speaks of the careful work of the embalmers. This once again confirms the great importance of the personality of the woman who is now mummy No. 61070. During the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, Nefertiti idolized both the court and the people, and therefore special attention was paid to her burial, which also affected the work of the embalmers.
DNA analyzes of the "Elderly Woman" are now being carried out, and then their results will be compared with tests of other known mummies to identify the genetic similarity of mummy No. 61070, for example, with Tutankhamun. Very soon we will learn about the conclusion of scientists and see a computer portrait of the most beautiful woman of all times and peoples.
Roman Aleev. UFO kaleidoscope number 38 (202)