Predecessors of Cleopatra

by Leigh North

The new capital was distant from both Memphis and Thebes, in middle Egypt, and received the name of Khu-a-ten, or as it is elsewhere given, Khuteteyn, “the horizon of the sun,” the modern Tel-el-Amarna or El-Amarna, the extensive ruins of which may yet be seen on both banks of the Nile. Like Solomon in Scripture, the potentate summoned to his assistance both artists and artizans, and the work was pressed with all possible vigor and speed. First the temple, then the palaces and homes of the nobility, lastly, in the neighborhood, their tombs. It is said that a revolution in art proceeded side by side with that in religion, an attempt was made to discard the older traditions and approximate more nearly to nature, and the specimen of these attempts at realism, to be found in the tombs, are of great interest. To this fact some authorities attribute the singular and disagreeable portraits of the king before referred to.

How deeply Queen Tyi’s heart was stirred and how keenly her feelings were concerned we may well conceive. The great enterprise was the development of her heart’s desire and every aid in her power she must have lent to the king’s assistance. Remaining in the old city she could no doubt expedite the sending of all sorts of supplies and materials required for the buildings and the private needs of her beloved son and his family.

Architecture and sculpture were ever important in the eyes of the Egyptian kings, and even the queens had their own sculptors and overseers of such work. Timber was scarce, quarries of sandstone and limestone numerous, hence the more enduring was the commoner material, which has preserved to posterity much that, had the ancient world been constructed of our more perishable wood and brick, in all probability would have utterly passed away. Some of the temples, as many of the tombs, of which those at Beni Hassan are an example, were in grottoes and caves, others stood alone in majestic grandeur; in all columns were used and the lotus was the prevailing ornament. Says Kendric, “As the columns of Beni Hassan gave rise to the Doric, so those which imitate plants and flowers appear to be the origin of the Corinthian. The Ionian volute is found in the columns of Persepolis, but in no Egyptian monument. It was probably of Assyrian origin, as it has been found in the remains of Nineveh.”

An inscription at Telel-Amarna reads, “And for the first time the king gave the command to call together all the masons from the Island of Elephantine to the town of Samud (special name for Migdol in Lower Egypt) and the chiefs and the leaders of the people to open a great quarry of the hard stone for the erection of the great obelisk of Har-makhu, by his name, as the god of light, who is (worshipped) as the sun’s disk in Thebes. Thither came the great and noble lords and the chief of the fan-bearers, to superintend the cutting and shipping of the stone.” Brugsch tells us that the stone quarry of Assoan and the cliffs of Silsilis on each side of the river furnished, the former rose and black granite, and the latter hard brown sandstone for this work. He also thinks that King Khu-n-aten designed to build in Thebes a gigantic pyramid of this same stone to the honor of his god.

Not far from the Nile, in the new city, rose the great temple of the sun. It was on a wide plain, the mountains rising behind it as says the same author, “like an encompassing wall.” The king also bestowed great honor upon his chief overseers and helpers, who accepted the new faith and entered into the work with real or assumed enthusiasm.

One named Meri-ra or Mery-Re “dear to the sun” was high-priest or prophet, the Pharaoh bestowing upon him words of praise and commendation and investing him with that special kingly reward, a golden necklace. His tomb at Tel el Amarna is one of the most interesting and largest that have been found. It is supported by columns and on its walls are depicted many scenes giving portraits of the deceased and his wife, the king and queen making offerings to the sun, the princesses and others. And it is here that is found the picture of the bestowal of the golden necklace.

A certain Aahmes, one of the many, for this seems long to have been a favorite name in Egypt, was another highly valued assistant and among the sepulchral inscriptions found at Tel-el-Amarna was a prayer to the son written by him. Beginning with ascription, it reads, “Beautiful is thy setting thou son’s disk of life, thou lord of lords and king of worlds,” and ending with professions of devotion to the king, as his “divine benefactor,” who had raised him to greatness, which naturally perhaps appears to have produced a very pleasing state of mind, for he concludes “the servant of the prince rejoices and is in a festive disposition every day.”

At this time there were at least several grandchildren of Queen Tyi, as special houses were prepared for them in connection with the palace. We can therefore imagine the impatience with which the dowager queen awaited the time for her journey to the new city and rejoining her loved ones, and couriers were doubtless busy, passing back and forth, with orders and directions from the king, as well as messages of affection to his mother, which were returned in full measure. It seems almost as if it might be at his special desire that she remained in Thebes, to lend him, as before said, all the aid in her power towards the completion of his work and that he might have the satisfaction of welcoming her to his new capital in a nearly completed state. She may also have acted to some extent as regent in his absence.

Her time of anticipation therefore must have endured for some years, since the erection of buildings of such magnitude could not have been accomplished in a very short period, no matter what the expedition used for the purpose. This second journey may well have reminded Queen Tyi of an earlier one she had taken in her youth, from her far native land, as the wife or the affianced bride of Amenophis III. That had been the seed-time, the sowing of which had produced such great fruits. Again she went forward attended by a large retinue, but now it was not to a land of promise, but one of fulfilment.

The king and his wife met the dowager queen after their long separation with all honor and affection, and themselves conducted her into the new temple. A picture of this scene, which remains, is thus inscribed, “Introduction of the queen mother to behold her sun shadow,” and very happy she must have felt in thus viewing the visible tokens of the realization of the dreams, hopes and prayers of many years. She must inspect the temple, the palaces of the king, queen and the various princesses, as well as the dwelling prepared for herself, and no doubt be made acquainted with the chief overseers and artists whom “the king delighted to honor,” and under whose charge the work had so prospered. The private houses were probably varied in color and frequently decorated on the outside with pictures of the occupations or professions of the owners. Beyond, some such scene as this, an immense meadow cut through with a blue stream, north and south, white walls of towns, on the horizons rim the reddish sands of the desert. The myth they believed in was this, “Osiris fell in love with this strip of land in the midst of deserts. He covered it with plants and living creatures, so as to have from them profit. Then the kindly god took a human form and became the first pharaoh. When he felt that his body was withering he left it and entered into his son and later into his son’s son. The lord has extended like a mighty tree. All the pharaohs are his roots, the nomarks and priests his larger branches, the nobles the smaller branches. The visible god sits on the throne of the earth and receives the income which belongs to him from Egypt; the invisible god receives offerings in his temples and declares his will through the lips of the priesthood.”