Nefertiti, whose name means "the Beautiful One Is Here," was principal queen of Akhenaton. Like her mother-in-law Queen Tiye, Nefertiti was a powerful figure in the court and may even have served as co-ruler with her husband at the end of his reign. She is frequently shown participating in religious rituals on an equal footing with her husband and she plays an unprecedented role in the decoration of the Aten Temple that Amenhotep IV built at Karnak before his move to Tell el-Amarna.This relief block, which probably came from the Aten Temple of Karnak, shows the queen wearing an elaborate wig surmounted by a towering crown of uraei, sun disk, two cow horns, and two feathers. Her arm is raised in offering to the Aten. The queen's image is depicted, with a drooping chin, thin slanted eyes, and a sharply angled nose and brow similar to that seen in depictions of her husband in the early exaggerated style of Amarna art (see 66.99.40).
