SHE was one of the legendary beauties of the ancient world, rivalled in her fame by only Helen of Troy and Cleopatra.

But now modern man can judge for himself - by gazing on the face of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, whose name meant "the beautiful one has come".

A team from York University working in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, is convinced it has identified the remains of Nefertiti, who lived about 3,500 years ago.

Using digital technology designed to aid murder investigations, experts have now recreated her face.

The image shows a woman with high cheekbones, full lips and swan-like neck - similar to the only bust of Nefertiti, now in a Berlin museum.

Nefertiti was stepmother of the boy-king Tutankhamun and was one of the first women to wield absolute power in the ancient world.

A French team working in the Valley in 1898 first came across the mummy, walled up in a side chamber of the tomb of Amenhotep IV. But it was photographed only once before being walled up again and remembered simply as the "younger woman".

But after Egyptian authorities allowed the mummy to be examined thoroughly, and 12 years of research, the York team is convinced it is Nefertiti, although they admit they can never be totally sure.

The reconstruction and the story behind it features in a film being shown on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, September 7.