Queen Tiye (or Tiy, 1398-1338 BCE) was the mother of Akhenaten and the grandmother of Tutankhamun and Ankhsenamun. She was the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. She is rumored to have had direct communications with foreign heads of state and wielded considerable influence at the courts of both her husband and son.

Queen Tiye (or Tiy, 1398-1338 BCE) was the mother of Akhenaten and the grandmother of Tutankhamun and Ankhsenamun. She was the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. She is rumored to have had direct communications with foreign heads of state and wielded considerable influence at the courts of both her husband and son. 

According to the Amarna letters, she enjoyed the respect of these monarchs even during her son's reign. Despite her belief in Egypt's old polytheistic religion, she backed Akhenaten's monotheistic reforms. 

She may have seen these moves as political moves that would strengthen the throne at the expense of the priests of Amun. She was buried in the Valley of the Kings after her early sixties death. 

Her mummy has been definitively identified as the Elder Lady, and a lock of her hair, probably a keepsake of the young king, was discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb.