page_title: Ankhesenamun
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Ankhesenamun / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Tutankhamun receives flowers from Ankhesenamun. This image is on the lid of a box found in Tut's tomb.
context_page_description: Ankhesenamun was a queen of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Born Ankhesenpaaten she was the third of six known daughters of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti, and became the Great Royal Wife of her half-brother 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. Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun shared the same father but Tutankhamun's mother has recently been identified through DNA analysis as one of Akhenaten's sisters, a daughter of Amenhotep III.
  Ankhesenamun was definitely married to one king: she was the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It is also possible that she was briefly married to Tutankhamun's successor, Ay, believed by some to be her maternal grandfather.
  Recent DNA tests released in February 2010 have also speculated that one of two late Eighteenth Dynasty queens buried in KV21 could be her mummy. Both mummies are thought, because of DNA, to be members of the ruling house.
context_section_description: She is believed to have been married first to her own father. This was not unusual for Egyptian royal families. She is thought to have been the mother of the princess Ankhesenpaaten Tasherit (possibly by her father or by Smenkhkare), although the parentage is unclear.
  After her father's death and the short reigns of Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten, she became the wife of Tutankhamun. Following their marriage, the couple honored the deities of the restored religion by changing their names to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun. The couple appear to have had two stillborn daughters. As Tutankhamun's only known wife was Ankhesenamun, it is highly likely the fetuses found in Tutankhamun's tomb are her daughters. Some time in the ninth year of his reign, at about the age of 18, Tutankhamun died suddenly, leaving Ankhesenamun alone without an heir at about age 21.
  A blue glass ring of unknown provenance obtained in 1931 depicts the prenomen of Ay and the name of Ankhesenamun enclosed in cartouches. This indicates that Ankhesenamun married Ay shortly before she disappeared from history, although no monuments show her as a royal consort. On the walls of Ay's tomb it is Tey (Ay's senior wife), not Ankhesenamun, who appears as queen. She probably died during or shortly after his reign and no burial has been found for her yet.
caption: Tutankhamun receives flowers from Ankhesenamun
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