I'm going to be honest, I'm an unashamed Cleopatra fan girl. She was kind of my entrance into history in second grade, which her story is not really second grade friendly, but I was just

enamored with her. We hear the stories of how she was kind of this seductress and this you know exotic bird that they kind of positioned

her to be but when I found out that she was just deeply intelligent a great

strategist she was the only Ptolemaic Pharaoh to ever learn ancient

Egyptian. She was the only one who didn't need a translator when she was

talking to her own people. That started to reveal to me that these historical figures had layers that might not be typically

told in their story. I do have her name. It's the biggest tattoo I have. It is on my bicep.

Oh, wow, yeah, that's a good, that's an awesome tattoo.

Yeah, it's her name.

She just seems so dynamic to me.

Eight-year-old Tori was convinced and 37-year-old Tori is convinced that she would have been my best friend.

I'm Doolan Thuris and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous queens.

We are talking today with History Buff, Tori Yates Orr.

She is a self-described Bill Nye of the history world and she has a real pension for all things ancient

Queens. We're going to look at three Queens, three rulers and three acts whose stories often aren't told in full.

We're going to hear about Nefertiti, whose famous bust has made her kind of the literal face of ancient Egypt.

We're going to hear about Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh who did not actually

die by Snakebite, and Amani Rainis, who you probably haven't heard of, but is a warrior

queen with one eye who led a very formidable army including a

brigade of war elephants at least we think so so settle in for a fascinating high

drama episode and who and get ready for some not second grade

friendly history stories you probably did not learn in school. Part one. School.

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