A proud gaze, a finely-proportioned face with high cheekbones and delicately arched brows, the slender nose, full lips, and a long aristocratic neck – Nefertiti must have been a woman of exceptionally charming appearance. Her name, which was probably pronounced 'Naftayta', appropriately meant 'the Beautiful One has come'.

Timeless beauty
Nefertiti's radiant appearance is documented in many portraits, some of them found in El-Amarna, once the seat of Akhenaton's court. The most fascinating of all is a painted portrait bust, sculpted in limestone and plaster, which has been on display in Berlin’s Egyptian Museum since 1924. This sculpture, barely 50cm (20 inches) high, and now one of the most famous artworks of the Egyptian Age of the Pharaohs, was discovered by the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt. He made his find on 6 December 1912, while excavating in the former Achetaton, in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmosis. It is still a matter of debate whether the bust can in fact be attributed to Thutmosis. However, only one of the queen's eyes was fully painted, and this suggests that the bust was probably just a model, serving the sculptor as a 'sketch' for the definitive piece.

Another portrait bust of the beautiful queen was found by a British researcher, John Pendlebury in about 1932, during excavations in El-Amarna. This head, which the sculptor apparently intended to put on a statue, bears no inscription. But it is so like other portraits of Nefertiti that it has been accepted as representing her. Today it can be admired in the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo.

Much-loved wife
Pharaoh Akhenaton must have adored his wife and consort with quite exceptional fervour. He had columns erected in his capital city bearing words in which he seeks to capture her beauty:

'Fairest of countenance, possessor of happiness, gifted with the talent of listening, whose voice brings joy, queen of all graces, richly endowed with love, bringer of happiness to the ruler of the two lands'.

Regal appearance
During the early years of her reign, Nefertiti seems to have adorned herself with the customary insignia of queens. She is depicted wearing crowns and wigs decorated with cow-horns, feathers and a sun disc – features associated with the cult of the goddess Hathor. Then later, in Amarna - the new royal capital - she wears a tall, flat-topped blue crown, which resembles Akhenaton's war-crown. This is the one that the famous 'Berlin bust' has made universally familiar. Occasionally she is also shown wearing a close-fitting, skullcap crown. Sometimes the beautiful queen also wears a purse-shaped head-dress – a kind of headscarf known as a 'khat'.

On other ancient reliefs, Nefertiti appears with a hair arrangement referred to as a 'tapered Nubian wig'. This consists of a number of layers of locks and plaits piled on top of each other, originally worn only by the men of the royal army. The queen's brow is frequently adorned by the double uraeus serpent, the emblem of her sovereignty over the two lands - Upper and Lower Egypt.

Reliefs on Akhenaton's sarcophagus show the royal consort wearing a pleated robe. She also wears a curly-haired wig, a double uraeus and an elaborate crown with a sun disc, a cobra frieze and two tall plumes.

Like other members of the aristocratic caste, Nefertiti not only wore jewellery, wigs and tight-fitting clothes, but also used cosmetics to bring out her natural beauty. Women in those days would draw a thick black eye line along the lid and well out beyond the eyes. For the Ancient Egyptians this line was associated with ritual purity. Green malachite, ground to powder and then rubbed together with fat to make a creamy paste, was applied to the eyelids. Women also used rouge, as various depictions attest. Lipstick was another important cosmetic substance. It contained the same ochreous substances as the rouge, but was mixed with lettuce-seed oil.