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As a result, Ankhesenpaaten became Ankhesenamun. C. During this time, she apparently gave birth prematurely to two girls; neither survived, and their mummified bodies were placed in King Tutankhamun’s tomb. After Tutankhamun’s death, Ankhesenamun was forced to marry Ay, who then became king even though he was a commoner. Ankhesenamun had tried to avoid this by sending a desperate message to Suppiluliumas, the king of the Hittites, begging him to send one of his sons to become her husband. The Hittite king responded by sending Prince Zennanza, but when the young man reached Egypt’s border he was killed, probably on orders of General Horemheb.

Sobek was typically depicted in the form of a crocodile, and live crocodiles were featured in temple rituals dedicated to Sobek in the Faiyum and at Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt. Similarly, live cobras were sometimes used in religious ceremonies dedicated to deified kings. The cobra (wadjet) was viewed as a manifestation of such kings and therefore became the symbol of royalty and of Upper Egypt, where most of ANKH Egypt’s rulers had their capital cities. Consequently, the reptile’s image often appeared on royal jewelry and other adornments.

The natural successor to the throne would have been the king’s eldest son, Crown Prince Seti-Merneptah. Why Amen- AMENMESSES messes became king instead is a matter of dispute. Some modern scholars think that the crown prince died before he could assume the throne and that Amenmesses was Seti-Merneptah’s younger brother and therefore the legitimate heir. Others believe that Seti-Merneptah was not dead but away in a foreign war when his father died and Amenmesses usurped the throne in his older brother’s absence.