Ancient Egypt

Queen Kiya

Second wife of Akhenaten.

Her name is found written as: kiya, kaia, kia and kiw
Kiya had a unique title only used by her: hemet mereryt aat - Great Beloved Wife.
She was however never called Great Royal Wife. She never wore a uraeus, and her name was never enclosed in a cartouche. On the other hand Kiya is known to have had a sunshade and was depicted with Akhnetane and a daughter. The latter seem to indicate she played an important role at court.

The origins of this Queen are rather mysterious. Some think she may have been the Mitanni Princess Tadukhepa, daughter of King Tushratta. Others have suggested she may be a daughter of Aye and Tey. But there is no evidence one way or the other.

Thought by some to be the mother of Tutankh(u)aten and possibly of Smenkhare.

Calcite Vase; Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y, (MMA 20.2.11)
The name of Akhenaten and the Hor-Aten appear on the vase.
Right of the King's Cartouches: The wife and great beloved of King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maat, (Neferkheperure - Waenre)|, the beautiful child of the Living Aten who shall live forever continually: Kiya.


Calcite Vase, British Museum, London (BM 65901)
Inscribed for: The wife and great beloved of King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maat, (Neferkheperure - Waenre)|, the beautiful child of the Living Aten who shall live forever continually: Kiya.
(dated to ca. Year 9 based on the use of the earlier Aten name)

Strip of wood, possibly from a pencase; University College London (UC 24382)
Remains of inscription: [The wife and great beloved] of [...], (Neferkheperure - Waenre)|, Kiya.
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/amarna/archive/uc24382rec.jpg

Fragment of a kohl tube; University College London (UC 601)
Part of Kiya's titulary: the beloved great wife of the king of Lower and Upper Egypt, living in truth
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/amarna/archive/uc601.gif

Fragment of a double kohl tube; University College London (UC 585)
Twice the name of Kiya
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/amarna/archive/uc585.gif

Fragment; University College London (UC 603)
With the inscription (...mrrt)y aAt n (niswt) bi(ty)   http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/icons/uc603.gif
Reconstruction of the whole inscription:  http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/amarna/archive/uc585rec.jpg

Stela Fragment from the Maru-Aten complex
I. On the front of the stela;
The King offers a libation jar to the Aten, while a royal lady shakes a sistrum behind him.
Beside solar disk: (Heka-Aten)|, given life forever continually; great living Aten, lord of jubilees(s), lord of everything Aten encircles, lord of heaven, lord of earth in the sunshade of the wife and great beloved Kiya in the Maru of the Aten in Akhet-Aten.
By King: The Lord of the Two Lands (Neferkheperure - Waenre)|, given life, Lord of Crowns , (Akhenaten)| , great in his lifetime.
Above the lady: the wife and great beloved  of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maat, Lord of the Two Lands, (Neferkheperure - Waenre)|, given life [...]
[the beautiful child] of the [living] Aten who lives continually forever, Kiya;
the King's bodily daughter, his beloved ..., born to the wife and great beloved  of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maat, (Neferkheperure - Waenre)|, [the beautiful child of the living Aten who lives continually forever, Kiya];
<Usurped and re-inscribed for the King's Daughter Meretaten>
On the back of the stela:
II. The King elevates a censer to the disk.
<inscriptions are virtually identical to those on the front.>

Block from Hermopolis
Beside the Disk of the Aten: [Great Living Aten], Lord of jubilee(s), lord of all Aten encircles, lord of heaven, lord of earth in the house of the King's Wife Kiya, in the house of rejoicing of the Aten in Akhet-Aten.
<Usurped and re-inscribed for the King's Daughter Meretaten>

Block from the Maru-Aten
A King followed by a Queen and a Princess
Titles of the Princess: the King's bodily daughter, his beloved Meretaten-junior, (who belongs) to the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands (Neferkheperure - Waenre)|, born to the wife and great beloved, Kiya;
<Usurped and re-inscribed for the King's Daughter Meretaten>

Block from Hermopolis
Following the Aten's epithets: ... in the sunshade of the wife and great beloved Kiya in the house of rejoicing of the Aten in Akhet-Aten.
<Usurped and re-inscribed for the King's Daughter Ankhesenpaaten>

Block from Hermopolis
King's bodily daughter, his beloved [...] born to the king's wife, the greatly beloved Kiya, [may she live]
< The princess's name was later re-inscribed (?) as Ankhesenpaaten-junior>


Block from Hermopolis; Metropolitan Museum.

This relief block was said to have come from Hermopolis, though it was probably originally part of a monument at Amarna. Kiya is shown undergoing ritual purification; the zigzag lines of water flow down on either side of her head. She originally wore the so-called Nubian wig and is shown in the more naturalistic style of the later years of Akhenaton's reign.

Tomb KV 55 in the Valley of the Kings


The head on the Canopic Jar may depict Queen Kiya.
The sarcophagus reused for a man (Smenkhare?) may have originally belonged to Kiya.