page_title: Tiye
section_title: Family and early life
hierarchical_section_title: Tiye / Family and early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Egyptian Museum (Cairo)
context_page_description: Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. In 2010, DNA analysis confirmed her as the mummy known as "The Elder Lady" found in the tomb of Amenhotep II in 1898.
context_section_description: Tiye's father, Yuya, was a non-royal, wealthy landowner from the Upper Egyptian town of Akhmim, where he served as a priest and superintendent of oxen or commander of the chariotry. Tiye's mother, Tjuyu, was involved in many religious cults, as her different titles attested (Singer of Hathor, Chief of the Entertainers of both Amun and Min...), which suggests that she was a member of the royal family.
  Egyptologists have suggested that Tiye's father, Yuya, was of foreign origin due to the features of his mummy and the many different spellings of his name, which might imply it was a non-Egyptian name in origin. Some suggest that the queen's strong political and unconventional religious views might have been due not just to a strong character, but to foreign descent.
  Tiye also had a brother, Anen, who was Second Prophet of Amun. Ay, a successor of Tutankhamun as pharaoh after the latter's death, is believed to be yet another brother of Tiye, despite no clear date or monument confirming a link between the two. Egyptologists presume this connection from Ay's origins (also from Akhmin), because he is known to have built a chapel dedicated to the local god Min there, and because he inherited most of the titles that Tiye's father, Yuya, held at the court of Amenhotep III during his lifetime.
  Tiye was married to Amenhotep III by the second year of his reign. He had been born of a secondary wife of his father and needed a stronger tie to the royal lineage.  He appears to have been crowned while still a child, perhaps between the ages of six and twelve. The couple had at least seven, and possibly more, children:
  Sitamun – The eldest daughter, who was elevated to the position of Great Royal Wife around year 30 of her father's reign.
  Isis – Also elevated to the position of Great Royal Wife.
  Henuttaneb – Not known to have been elevated to queenship, though her name does appear in a cartouche at least once.
  Nebetah – Sometimes thought to have been renamed Baketaten during her brother's reign.
  Crown Prince Thutmose – Crown Prince and High Priest of Ptah, pre-deceasing his father.
  Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten – Succeeded his father as pharaoh, husband of Queen Nefertiti, father of Ankhesenamun, who married Tutankhamun.
  Smenkhkare – traditionally seen as one of Akhenaten's immediate successors, today some Egyptologists such as Aidan Dodson believe he was the immediate predecessor of Neferneferuaten and a junior co-regent of Akhenaten who did not have an independent reign. Sometimes identified with the mummy from KV55, and therefore Tutankhamun's father.
  The Younger Lady from KV35 – A daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye, mother of Tutankhamun and sister-wife of KV55. Presumably one of the already-known daughters of Amenhotep III and Tiye.
  Beketaten – Sometimes thought to be Queen Tiye's daughter, usually based on reliefs of Baketaten seated next to Tiye at dinner with Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
caption: Colossal statue of Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye, Egyptian Museum, Cairo
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