Nefertiti costumes

In Halloween of 2011, I dressed as Nefertiti, the little known Queen of Egypt and Great Royal Wife of pharaoh Akhenaten during the 18th Dynasty, 14th century B.C. Why choose an obscure queen and not someone like the more famous Cleopatra? It is the mystery and controversy that surrounded the life of Nefertiti that intrigues me. There are doubts about her royal lineage and whether Nefertiti was in fact the actual mother of Akhenaten, and his wife at the same time. Scholars believed that Nefertiti urged her husband to leave the old gods and worhip the sole god, Aten, an act considered as heretical. She changed her name to 'Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti' or 'The Aten is radiant because the beautiful one has come'. And Nefertiti attained the power and status of a Pharaoh and co-ruler with Akhenaten. After bearing six daughters and no sons, Nefertiti disappeared and was never seen again.

The Great Royal Wife of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten -- and, perhaps, a ruler of Egypt in her own right -- she was, for a time, the most powerful woman in the world. Test your knowledge of the beautiful, the powerful, the mysterious Nefertiti.

Click to play the quiz

Egyptian Queen Nefertiti Adult Halloween Costume

(Large)

Large

(11-13) Adult Nefertiti Costume

Nefertiti Egyptian Queen Adult Costume

For a dramatic effect, I am going to wear my eye makeup similar to Cleopatra's as shown on this video.

Eye makeup needed to create the enticingly bold, exotic and exaggerated Nefertiti or Cleopatra eyes.

Let your creativity shine through your Nefertiti costume. Let your interpretation of what you think Nefertiti should look like come alive in a costume party.

Eye makeup, of course, will make a big dramatic difference.

Others have proposed that Queen Nefertiti ceased to be mentioned because she had become a king. Ankh(et)kheperure Nefernefruaten is thought, by some, to be none other than Nefertiti.

One theory of Nefertiti's disappearance is that she assumed a male identity and ruled under the name Smenkhkhare. In another theory, she was murdered as part of the return to the traditional Egyptian religious customs. Another is that she simply died.

Has the mummy of the beautiful Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, really been identified?