Random Famous Pharaohs Looked Like When They Were Alive (9 items)

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  (#5) Akhenaten

  Lived: unknown - c. 1336 BCE

  Ruled: c. 1353 BCE - c. 1336 BCE

  Egyptologist Donald Redford described Akhenaten as "a man deemed ugly by the accepted standards of the day, secluded in the palace in his minority, certainly close to his mother, possibly ignored by his father, outshone by his brother and sister, unsure of himself."

  Known as Amenhotep IV before changing his name - and the religion of his kingdom - Akhenaten was supposedly deformed, exhibiting features of Marfan syndrome, including long extremities and facial features. He may have also suffered from Klinefelter syndrome, a genetic condition that causes larger breasts in men.

  Other scholars speculate he had Fröhlich's syndrome which causes large thighs and a big head. The feminine and oddly proportioned features Akhenaten has in works of art could be attributed to these disorders, or it may reflect the religious, political, and cultural shift closely associated with his reign. 
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  (#1) Tutankhamun

  Lived: c. 1341 BCE - c. 1323 BCE

  Ruled: c. 1332 BCE - c. 1323 BCE

  Unfortunately, there is no real contemporary historical information about Tutankhamun's appearance. But DNA tests and CT scans revealed he had malaria and Kohler disease, a bone disorder which may have given him a club foot. His medical afflictions and royal breeding within the family line may have also given him an overbite and buck teeth.
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  (#4) Hatshepsut

  Lived: c. 1505 BCE - 1458 BCE

  Ruled: c. 1479 BCE as regent; took the title of pharaoh in 1473 BCE - 1458 BCE

  Hatshepsut acted as both king and queen during her reign; thus most images of Hatshepsut depict her as masculine, with a beard and muscular physique. Her mummified body revealed she was overweight and losing her hair later in life.
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  (#8) Khufu

  Lived: unknown - c. 2466 BCE

  Ruled: c. 2575 BCE - c. 2465 BCE (or c. 2470 - 2447 BCE)

  Famously depicted on the Great Pyramid at Giza, Khufu - called Cheops in Greek - is shown in sculpture and inscription sitting upon his throne wearing a crown; but it was his personality that got the attention of Herodotus.

  According to the 5th century BCE writer, Khufu was greedy, and when he became king, he "brought [the Egyptian people] to every kind of evil." It was said he forbade people from worshipping in the temples, forced terrible conditions on the laborers building the Great Pyramid, and had his daughter demand money from those laborers.
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  (#9) Djoser

  Lived: c. 2650 BCE - c. 2575 BCE

  Ruled: c. 2630 BCE - c. 2611 BCE

  Little is known about Djoser, also identified as Zoser, but he is credited as the first pharaoh to build a stone pyramid. The facial features on a life-sized statue of Djoser housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo have been damaged, but a healty bone structure, thick lips, and what has been described as a "stern" expression are still identifiable. 
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  (#2) Cleopatra

  • Dec. at 39 (68 BC-29 BC)

  Lived: c. 70 or 69 BCE - 30 BCE

  Ruled: c. 51 BCE - c. 30 BCE

  Popular representations of Cleopatra VII of Egypt show a beautiful seductress, one who bore the child of Julius Caesar before entering into a love affair with Marc Antony. Roman Historian Cassius Dio described her as follows:

  A woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking; she also possessed a most charming voice and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to [everyone]. Being brilliant to look upon and to listen to, with the power to subjugate [everyone], even a love-sated man already past his prime, she thought that it would be in keeping with her role to meet Caesar, and she reposed in her beauty all her claims to the throne.

  But Greek biographer Plutarch differed in his assessment, claiming her beauty was not from her looks, but her voice and charisma. Coinage from the period depicts her with a hooked nose, pointed chin, and pronounced brow. 

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