Merneith was an important queen in ancient Egypt's 1st Dynasty. She was either the queen consort to King Djet or a queen regent who ruled until her son Den came of age. As a prominent royal woman, she held the title "Foremost of Women." Merneith was buried in Abydos near the tombs of her husband and son, and 41 subsidiary graves near her tomb contained the bodies of people sacrificed to accompany her in the afterlife.

1. The Queens of
Egypt

2. Cleopatra:Queen of the Nile
By
Geetanjali

3. • Cleopatra came from a Greek descent. She was born at a
time when Ptolemaic dynasty ruled over Egypt-
descendents of the general under Alexander the Great
during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C.
• She was 17 years old when became the queen of Egypt in
51 B.C along with her 10 year old brother who was her co-
ruler and husband, after the death of their father, Ptolemy
XII.
• Marriage between a brother and sister was a common
practice in Egytian royal families.
Early Life &
Background

4. • There was a civil war going on between the supporters of Cleopatra and
her husband, Ptolemy XIII. Julius Caesar, the ruler of Roman empire had
just arrived in Alexandria, Egypt’s capital. He had come in pursuit of
Pompey, a Roman general and Caesar’s rival in becoming Rome’s ruler.
• Cleopatra smuggled herself into Alexandria to convince Caesar to take her
side in the civil war. Ptolemy XIII accused them of conspiring against him.
However, he drowned in the river Nile during a battle later on. Cleopatra
became the ruler of Egypt and gave birth to Julius Caesar’s son Caesarian.
• After Caesar was assassinated, she tried to make her 3 year old son a
contender for the Roman throne.
The relationships between Cleopatra VII, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were
love affairs, and power struggles, that would change the course of Egyptian
and Roman history, forever.
Her Rise to
Power

5. • After Augustus Caesar(Julius’s adopted son) and Mark antony(one of his favourite
generals) had routed all the senators who had assassinated Julius Caesar, they
became the rivals for Roman Throne.
• Mark Antony decided to attack the Parthian (Persian) Empire. Mark Antony
needed Cleopatra's support financially and militarily for his invasion. She set out
for Tarsus in Asia Minor loaded with gifts, having delayed her departure to
heighten Antony’s expectation.
• She entered the city by sailing up the Cydnus River in a barge while dressed in the
robes of the goddess, new Isis. Antony, who equated himself with the
god Dionysus, was captivated.
• Cleopatra having lost the protection of the strongman Caesar needed another
Roman leader as a political ally.
• Mark Antony was so captivated by Cleopatra that he gave up his plans for the
invasion of the Parthian Empire and went with Cleopatra back to her capital of
Alexandria. Mark Antony divorced his wife Olivia(Augustus’s sister) and married
Cleopatra.
• Augustus used this as an excuse to invade Egypt. When they were finally
surrounded, both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.
Aftermath and
Death

6. Her beauty was the product of Roman
propaganda
Contrary to modern portrayals from Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh, there is no
evidence among ancient historians that Cleopatra was a great beauty.
Romans used her beauty as tool to undermine how exceptionally powerful and smart
woman she was.
MOVIE POTRAYALS
HOW SHE LOOKED IN REALITY

7. Was Cleopatra beautiful?
The idea that Cleopatra, the famous last queen of ancient Egypt, owed her powerful position to her
beauty persist, but why does her appearance really matter?
“The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been
shorter, the whole face of the earth would
have changed,” the French philosopher
Blaise Pascal ruminated. While for Pascal
this thought illustrated how something
small can change the course of history, the
statement is also based on the belief that
Cleopatra VII owed her powerful position
at that important juncture of history to her
physique alone. On the basis of portrait
coins struck by Cleopatra, philosophers
such as Blaise Pascal assumed that the
queen’s prominent nose was an element of
the physical attraction with which she
seduced Julius Caesar and Mark Antony –
and thus changed the course of world
history.
This idea pervades our modern perception – in serious
scholarship, Asterix comics and Hollywood cinema.
Historians do not normally address matters of physical
appearance, except to paint a portrait of a biographic
subject, not to answers questions about historical
significance of political power.

8. Cleopatra may not have died from an asp bite.
Legend has it that she died by enticing an “asp”—most likely a viper or
Egyptian cobra—to bite her arm. Cleopatra was also known to conceal
a deadly poison in one of her hair combs, and the historian Strabo
notes that she may have applied a fatal “ointment.”
She was highly intelligent and well educated
Medieval Arab texts praise Cleopatra for her accomplishments as
a mathematician, chemist and philosopher. She was said to have
written scientific books. She was also multilingual – historical
accounts report her speaking between 5 and 9 languages, including her
native Greek, Egyptian, Arabic and Hebrew.
She used her image as a political tool
Cleopatra believed herself to be a living goddess and was keenly
aware of the relationship between image and power. She would
appear dressed as the goddess Isis at ceremonial events, and
surrounded herself with luxury.

9. Merneith
By
Somya Mehta

10. Overview of the life and
times of Queen Merneith
Queen Merneith was a prominent royal woman who lived
during the 1st Dynasty of the period in ancient Egyptian
history referred to as the Early Dynastic Period. The time in
which she lived marked huge changes in the cultural,
religious and political evolution of ancient Egypt. This was
the time when hieroglyphic writing was developed and small
villages and joined larger communities and cities. The
religious cults of gods such as Horus, Set and Neith became
widespread in Egypt as did the practice of Human Sacrific.
Merneith was a queen-consort and a regent of Ancient Egypt
and she may also have been the first Egyptian queen who
ruled in her own right.

11. Facts about Merneith
• Her name means 'Beloved by Neith'. Neith was an important deity in the
Early Dynastic Period and revered as a warrior and funerary goddess and
the patron of weaving, in particular the linen used for mummy bandages.
• Merneith was associated with the most important male rulers of her time.
She is believed the daughter of King Djer, who followed King Narmer as one
of the kings of the 1st dynasty.
• Her title as queen-consort to King Djet was "Foremost of Women". Their
marriage produced the heir to the throne who was called Den. This
relationship is confirmed in a clay seal found in the tomb of King Den that
was engraved with "King's Mother".

12. • Whether her title was regent or queen-pharaoh she ruled
Egypt until her son came of age and carried out the religious
and political duties associated with the role.
• Her name is also found engraved in a serekh on a seal from
Saqqara. The serekh was the earliest convention used to set
apart a royal name in ancient Egyptian iconography, before the
cartouche was used.
• She was buried in Abydos and her tomb is located close to
that of her husband Djet and her son Den with other
exclusively male tombs.
• During her era human sacrifice was practised as part of the
royal funerary rituals to ensure the Pharaohs (ruler ) had
servants in the Afterlife. Bodies found from this era show
marks of the throat having been cut before the victims were
decapitated. It is believed that 41 subsidiary graves contained
the bodies of those who died to accompany the queen in the
Afterlife

13. Pictures of Merneith

14. Movies Based On
Egyptian History
1. The Loves of Pharaoh (1922)
2. The Mummy (1932)
3. The Egyptian (1954)
4. Land of the Pharaohs (1955)
5. Cleopatra (1963)
6. The Prince of Egypt (1998)
7. The Mummy Returns (2001)
8. Gods of Egypt (2016)

15. NEFERTITI: GREAT
ROYAL WIFE
Made by : Akansha Gautam

16. WHO WAS
NEFERTITI ?
• Nefertiti, whose name means "a beautiful
woman has come," was the queen of Egypt
and wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten during the 14th
century B.C. She and her husband established
the cult of Aten, the sun god, and promoted
Egyptian artwork that was radically different
from its predecessors. A bust of Nefertiti is one
of the most iconic symbols of Egypt.

17. THE EYE
MYSTERY
• Borchardt assumed that the quartz iris had
fallen out when Thutmose's workshop fell into
ruin. The missing eye led to speculation that
Nefertiti may have suffered from an ophthalmic
infection and lost her left eye, though the
presence of an iris in other statues of her
contradicted this possibility.

18. PICTURES OF NEFERTITI