This is an account of the lives of two eminent Queen-Monarchs of Ancient Egypt - the beautiful Nefertiti (1367-1350 BC) and the talented Cleopatra (51-30 BC). Both politically adept, they also distinguished themselves in their love for the greatest men of their day: Nefertiti for the sun-worshipping Pharaoh Akhenaten, and Cleopatra for Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Though they were far apart in time and culture, a likeness in their situation existed - in their elegance, their position of power, their remarkable and unusual aims, and their grief and ultimate tragedy. The book describes their sophisticated environment in the Nile Valley. Using evidence from excavations and objects in the world's great museums, it sets out to recreate life in Nefertiti's and Akhenaten's capital city at Amarna: and, drawing on the Classical writers, to retell the dramatic history of Cleopatra.