Gilukhipa, or more probable ''Kilu-Hepa'' in Hurrian language, in the

Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts which were made accessible to the modern world following the decipher ...

''Kirgipa'' (fl. early 14th c. BCE), was the daughter of

Shuttarna II Shuttarna II (or Šuttarna) was a king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in the early 14th century BC. Shuttarna was a descendant and probably a son of the great Mitannian king Artatama I. He was an ally of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III and ...

, king of

Mitanni Mitanni (; Hittite cuneiform ; ''Mittani'' '), c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat (''Hanikalbat'', ''Khanigalbat'', cuneiform ') in Assyrian records, or ''Naharin'' in ...

. She was the sister of

Tushratta Tushratta (Akkadian: and ) was a king of Mitanni, c. 1358–1335 BCE, at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and throughout the reign of Akhenaten. He was the son of Shuttarna II. Tushratta stated that he was the grandson of Artatama I. His si ...

(later King of Mitanni), Biria-Waza and

Artashumara Artashumara Akkadian: ), brother of Tushratta and son of Shuttarna II, briefly held the throne of Mitanni in the fourteenth century BC. Reign He is known only from a single mention in a tablet found in Tell Brak "Artassumara the king, son of Shut ...

Biography

For political reasons, Gilukhipa was sent to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

to join Amenhotep III in marriage. The Egyptian pharaoh made a special issue of commemorative scarabs on the occasion of his marriage to Gilukhipa in his 10th regnal year (ca.1378–1376 BCE), where he recorded that the princess was escorted by 317 ladies-in-waiting, women from the Mitanni king's royal palace.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.154 Gilukhipa became known as the "Secondary King's Wife," meaning she was secondary to Amenhotep III's chief wife, Queen

Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. ...

. Twenty-six years later, her niece

Tadukhepa Tadukhipa, in the Hurrian language ''Tadu-Hepa'', was the daughter of Tushratta and his queen Juni, and niece of Artashumara. Tadukhipa's aunt Gilukhipa (sister of Tushratta) had married Pharaoh Amenhotep III in his 10th regnal year. Tadukhipa ...

also became Amenhotep's wife.

References

{{Queens of Ancient Egypt 14th-century BC Egyptian women Hurrian people Queens consort of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Wives of Amenhotep III Ancient Mesopotamian women