Ahmose-Nefertari

Ahmose-Nefertari was an Egyptian queen at the foundation of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the early New Kingdom. A daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep, she married Ahmose I, whose reign completed the expulsion of the Hyksos and reunified Egypt. She held the titles Great Royal Wife, King’s Mother and God’s Wife of Amun, placing her at the centre of both dynastic government and the expanding religious institutions of Thebes.

After Ahmose I’s death, Ahmose-Nefertari remained prominent during the reign of their son Amenhotep I and may have exercised considerable influence during his early rule. Royal monuments and endowments associate her closely with temple property and the cult of Amun. After her death she was venerated with Amenhotep I, especially by the workmen of Deir el-Medina, where the pair became protective divine figures of the Theban necropolis for centuries.

Pauline Gedge’s The Oasis and The Horus Road place Ahmose-Nefertari within the Theban royal family during the final struggle against Hyksos rule. The Oasis follows the household after Seqenenre Tao’s death as Kamose carries the war north and dynastic tensions intensify; The Horus Road then shifts to the young Ahmose’s campaign against Avaris. Across the two novels Ahmose-Nefertari belongs to the family whose survival, marriages and succession are inseparable from the creation of the Eighteenth Dynasty.