Page 308 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

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and behind them she could feel the world pressing in upon them,
eager to overwhelm and wipe them out. And even inside their
little community, dedicated to peace and harmony, there was

no peace and no harmony any more.
The immediate cause of disharmony was Senkh-kara, a
young architect who suddenly rose to be a favorite of Akhenaten.
The scandal could not be hushed up. Akhenaten began to as­
sociate the name of Senkh-kara with his own as previously

Nefertiti’s name had figured. And to add legality to the as­
sociation, he announced the marriage of Senkh-kara to his eldest
daughter Merit-Aten, and proclaimed Senkh-kara his heir and

co-ruler.
At the same time he disposed of Tutankhaten by decreeing
his marriage to Ankh-esenpa-Aten.
Within his family, as within his kingdom, pharaoh was all-
powerful. But Nefertiti was herself of the blood of divine phar­

aohs, and this humiliation she could not take. From this point
events moved rapidly, and Ankh-esenpa-Aten, bewildered and
not yet in her teens, found herself the sport of destinies which

she was quite unable to control or even understand. Nefertiti
left the palace, taking her daughter and Tutankhaten with her,
and set up her own palace, which she called “the House of Aten.”
With her went the high priest of Aten, Ai, who for so long had

had such influence over Akhenaten, but whose advice was now
completely disregarded by the infatuated pharaoh. Ai was now a
middle-aged man, stout and scheming, and he held long con­

ferences with Nefertiti before disappearing suddenly one day in
the direction of Thebes.
In the following months messengers were continually ap­
pearing at “the House of Aten” and leaving again as mysteriously

as they came. Horemheb came once to Akhetaten and had a long
conference with the pharaoh and another with Nefertiti.
Then, one day in the early months of 1358 b.c., word was

brought to “the House of Aten” that Akhenaten and Senkh-kara
had been found dead in their palace. Before the day was out, a
boat arrived from Ai to take Tutankhaten and his young wife to
Thebes.

Ankh-esenpa-Aten never did find out how her father died.