ANKENSENPAATEN
Many people are very sceptic. Are you sceptic? Most of us would like ample facts before we believe.
For instance, many skeptics did not believe what the Bible said about the existence of the Hittites. The reason? Nothing was mentioned of them outside the Bible.
God cares about skeptics and this is one of the main reasons why the science of archaeology was born. So if you are a little skeptic about certain things written in the Bible, God understands and He will supply you with enough facts to help your unbelief.
TEL EL AMARNA
Let me quickly take you to three interesting sites. The first one is tell el Amarna in Egypt. This is where the first monotheistic pharaoh ruled.
I visited the tomb in which Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti was buried. It was a quite an experience.
On this relief so see three of their six daughters. Meketaten, Meretaten and Ankensenpaaten. She married Tutankaten.
It is quite an experience to visit his treasures in the Egyptian museum and look at his beautiful death mask.
Coming back to the birthplace of Ankensenpaaten. In 1887 a peasant at Tell el-Amarna found about 400 tablets inscribed in Acadian cuneiform. Let me take you to the Louvre at Paris and show it to you.
They formed part of the correspondence, later known as the Amarna letters, of Akhenaten and his predecessor, Amenhotep III, with the governors in Palestine and Syria and the kings of Babylonia, Assyria, and Mitanni. For the first time archaeologist found a reference to the Hittites.
HATUSSAS
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the ruins of the ancient capital of the Hittites in Turkey, called Hatussas. Let me tell you about a letter that was published by Mursilis, the son of Suppiluliumas.
Hugo Winkler made this discovery in 1908. It was from Ankensenamun who had just lost her husband, Tutankamun (Bibhururiyas)
Let me read you a portion of her letter:
“People say that you have many sons. Give me one of your sons and he is my husband and king in the land of Egypt.”
What do think? Did he respond?
The other fascinating site is in northern Turkey, called Carchemish. While the Hittite king Suppiluliumas besieged this stronghold, he got this email from Ankensenamun.
It took him 12 months before he finally replied and sent one of his sons to marry this widow.
But it is a very sad story. While this young prince was on his way to banish the royal widow’s need for a husband he was killed.
At Tel el Amarna you can visit the tomb of Ay. He was the overseer of Tutankamun’s horses. History tells us that this old man in his eighties eventually married Ankensenamun.
A thought came to me when I visited his tomb. Ankensenamun asked the greatest king of the ancient world to give her his son.
It took him a year to respond and then her dream prince, her future husband and king, was murdered. What a disappointment.
And on top of it all, she became the wife of someone she never loved, just a commoner.
While looking at the throne found in her husband’s tomb, I thought of God’s throne of grace. When we contact God, telling Him that we want His Son to be our partner for life, He will respond immediately.
When I looked at her statue at Karnak, I spoke to her: “Ankensenamun. Your dreams of marrying a young prince were shattered. He never reached you. But there is another Prince, Jesus Christ who never disappoints. He always answers the call of the lonely empty hear