Last updated at 12:28 02 May 2008

Pretty boy: A sculpted head of Akhenaten shows his elongated features

One of ancient Egypt's greatest kings had a strikingly feminine body shape even though he fathered at least half a dozen children possibly including Tutankhamun.

Images of Akhenaten, who introduced monotheism to Egypt and died more than 33 centuries ago, suggest that the pharaoh had breasts and wide hips were due to a genetic disorder, scientists were told today.

The pharoah's female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused his body to convert an excessive number of its male hormones to female hormones, Dr. Irwin Braverman was due to tell a conference on the deaths of historic figures.

Akhenaten's head was also misshapen - because of a condition in which skull bones fuse at an early age.

The husband of famous queen Nefertiti, Akhenaten was Tutankhamun's predecessor on the throne of Egypt in the mid-1300s B.C. - and either his father or his uncle.

Dr. Braverman, from Yale University, analysed statues and carvings of Akhenaten for the annual conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The pharaoh had "an androgynous appearance. He had a female physique with wide hips and breasts, but he was male and he was fertile and he had six daughters," the physician said.

"But nevertheless, he looked like he had a female physique."

This was largely due to familial gynecomastia, a hereditary condition that leads to the overproduction of oestrogen, he said.

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Pharoah of them all: Akhenaten's womanly curves are clearly depicted in this relief

U.S. Egyptologist Donald B. Redford backed Dr. Braverman's belief that Akhenaten had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder marked by lengthened features, including fingers and the face.

Visits to clinics that treat those with the condition had strengthened his conviction, said Professor Redford, "but this is very subjective, I must admit."

Others have theorised that Akhenaten had Froehlich's Syndrome, which causes feminine fat distribution. But it also causes sterility, which doesn't fit Akhenaten.

Dr. Braverman said determining whether he is right could easily be done if Egyptologists can confirm which mummy is Akhenaten's and if the Egyptian government agrees to DNA analysis on the remains.

"I'm hoping that after we have this conference and I bring this up, maybe the Egyptologists who work on these things all the time … will be stimulated to look," he said.

Previous conferences have examined the deaths of Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander the Great, Mozart, Florence Nightingale and others.