Meritamen

Meritamen (also spelled Meritamon, Meritamun, Merytamen, Merytamun, Meryt-Amen; ancient Egyptian: Beloved of Amun) was a daughter and later Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses the Great, born by his first queen Nefertari.

Family

Meritamen was a daughter of Ramesses and his first Great Royal Wife, Nefertari. She appears as the fourth daughter in the list of daughters in Abu Simbel and had at least four brothers: Amun-her-khepeshef, Pareherwenemef, Meryre and Meryatum, as well as a sister named Henuttawy. Meritamen may have had more brothers and sisters, but these five are known from the facade of Queen Nefertari's temple in Abu Simbel.

Her eldest brother, Amun-her-khepeshef, was the crown prince until at least year 25 of the reign of their father. Prince Prehirwenemef is known to have served in the army and is depicted in the battle scenes from Kadesh. The youngest sibling known to us, Prince Meryatum, would later become High Priest of Re in Heliopolis.

Around the time her mother died (around the 23th regnal year), Meritamen became Royal Wife, along with her half-sister Bintanath. In the following years, she, along with her half-sister, was successively promoted to Great Royal Wife.¹ Like Nefertari and Tuya, who shared a Mammisi at the Ramesseum, Meritamen also had a small chapel within the Ramesseum. It is believed that this chapel originally housed the statue of Meritamen as the White Queen. Later, the White Queen statue was removed from its original location for preservation and placed in a building initially named the White Queen Chapel, which was subsequently renamed the Meritamen Chapel. However, this building was actually constructed during the reign of Akhenaten, leading some scholars to suggest that her statue was relocated to this site at an uncertain later date. Nevertheless, like Nefertari and Tuya, Meritamen was worshipped in some form within the Ramesseum.