People > Akhenaten

Akhenaten

Background

He had a thin face and a massive elongated bald head supported by a spindly neck, and his drooping shoulders, pear-shaped torso, lack of musculature, and scrawny legs certainly made him look like a space traveler. Akhenaten was also very androgynous in appearance, and respected scholars have accused him of being a homosexual or a woman masquerading as a man. Statues of Akhenaten have survived that show him naked with the breast of a woman and no male genitalia. It is known that this freakish pharaoh claimed one of the most beautiful women in the world as his bride, the lovely Nefertiti (whose family origins are still unknown to Egyptologists), and also shared the throne with a handsome young man by the name of Smenkhkare. Both of Akhenaten’s co-rulers shared the title "Beauty of All Beauties."