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2015 July

Nefertiabet 3A.png

A royal beauty from the pyramid age

Jeff Burzacott July 9, 2015

Meet Princess Nefertiabet, blessed with a name that means 'Beautiful One of the East'.


Egypt peaked early.

By the 4th Dynasty – 4,600 years ago – the Great Pyramids had already been raised, the Great Sphinx stood majestically, and Egypt’s distinctive artistic style was carved in stone – literally.

And, judging by this stela, Princess Nefertiabet was already one of the most beautiful women Egypt would ever see.

Nefertiabet lived - in this life and the next - in the shadow of her famous brother. She was probably the sister of King Khufu, and was buried in a large mastaba tomb (G 1225), west of her brother's Great Pyramid at Giza.

 Embedded in one of the walls of her mastaba was a stela which shows the princess seated before a lavish funerary feast that ensured her afterlife was perpetually well-catered for.

On her stela (E 15591), now in the Louvre, Nefertiabet wears a priestly panther-skin dress which was less about fashion, and more about demonstrating her piety and worthiness of an eternity with the gods.

The panther skin dress suggests that Nefertiabet was a priestess of Seshat, goddess of writing and knowledge. She would have accompanied her husband, Prince Wepemnefret, who bore the title 'Priest of Seshat', in their daily veneration of the goddess.

Photo courtesy of Hans Ollermann.

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 Satisfy your passion for ancient Egypt.  NILE Magazine  June-July 2017 is out now. Inside: - The Tomb-1000 years of robbery and reuse. - Egypt's first ever funerary garden discovered. - World Museum's new ancient Egypt gallery. - Art and Archaeology meet: the two worlds of Susan Osgood. - The Royal Tombs of Ancient Egypt. - Aswan's powerful governors. - On This Day in Egyptology history. - Plus much more.   Click on the cover to subscribe.

Satisfy your passion for ancient Egypt.
NILE Magazine June-July 2017 is out now. Inside:
- The Tomb-1000 years of robbery and reuse.
- Egypt's first ever funerary garden discovered.
- World Museum's new ancient Egypt gallery.
- Art and Archaeology meet: the two worlds of Susan Osgood.
- The Royal Tombs of Ancient Egypt.
- Aswan's powerful governors.
- On This Day in Egyptology history.
- Plus much more.

Click on the cover to subscribe.

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Discover Ancient Egypt Today