Scene 2 – A Room in the Palace "(Three years later)": Tyi is regent of Egypt until Akhnaton comes of age. The young man shows little interest in ruling as his father had done and antagonises Meriptah. It is revealed that it was Tyi who instilled in Akhnaton a dislike of the religion of Amon and a reverence of Ra when he was a child. In conversation with another priest, Ay, Akhnaton realises his destiny and that he is the son of Ra. He gives orders that his barge be prepared for a voyage down the Nile to a spot where he will build a new city to the glory of Ra. Nefertiti is introduced. She and her husband Akhnaton have a genuine love for each other and their only child, a daughter. Tyi warns Nefertiti that she must persuade her husband not to oppose the cult of Amon to any great degree, knowing the danger that such a move would present to him, but she is too loyal to her husband to go against his wishes. Nefertiti's calculating sister, Nezzemut asks her dwarf servant, Para, for a vision of the future through sand divining. Para foretells that Horemheb will one day be Pharaoh and that Nezzemut will be his Queen.