Nefertari, which means "beautiful companion", was Ramesses II's favorite wife; he went out of his way to make this obvious, referring to her as "the one for whom the sun shines" in his writings, built the Temple of Hathor to idolize her as a deity, and commissioned portraiture wall paintings. For what still remains, these wall paintings characterized Nefertari's character. The Tomb of Queen Nefertari is located in the Valley of the Queens in Luxor west bank. Nefertari Meritmut, whose name means ‘beautiful companion' was the first of the Great Royal Wives of Ramesses the Great and one of the best known Egyptian queens, next to Hatshepsut, Cleopatra, and Nefertiti. A whole entire wall was dedicated to show the Queen at play, demonstrating the importance of the game of Senet. Love poetry has been found inside her tomb that was written by Ramsses II. Perhaps to the ancient Egyptians they had a specific difference. The work would have been progressive, each skill following the one before; none waiting for the whole tomb to be completed before starting. The local limestone contains salt, as did the mud from the Nile, used to make the plaster. The east wall of the antechamber is interrupted by a large opening flanked by representation of Osiris at left and Anubisat right; this in turn leads to the side chamber, decorated with offering scenes, preceded by a vestibule in which the painting… It would been produced by workmen responsible for the Valley of the Kings, from the village of Deir el-Medina. Parts of the mummy's knees were found in the burial chamber, and were taken to the Egyptian Museum in Turin by Schiaparelli, where they are still kept today. Book your tickets online for Tomb of Queen Nefertari, Luxor: See 329 reviews, articles, and 203 photos of Tomb of Queen Nefertari, ranked No.3 on Tripadvisor among 77 attractions in Luxor. Tomb number: QV66 These were not painted to match the missing colour, but were painted in "trattegio" (straight lines) to produce an almost identical match of colour; water based paint was used, for easy removal if at some future date it found to be inappropriate. As usual with royal sarcophaguses of the 18th Dynasty, it combined both images and texts. To this day, the Getty Conservation Institute regularly monitors the tomb. When discovered, Nefertari's tomb was found to have been badly damaged, plundered and left open to the elements of nature and mankind.Among the remains found by Schiaparelli were several scarabs, pieces from the queens pink granite sarcophagus lid and fragments from a guilded coffin lid. The tomb and its decoration are of an exceptionally high quality, with almost every surface being decorated in vibrant colours. Her tomb is the most beautiful found in the Valley of the Queens. These are ((nbt) and ((Hnwt). She was the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II the Great, one of the best known of the Egyptian queens, next to … All of this means that several layers of plaster were required to be applied to the walls before painting.Because of the many serious problems, which affected its beautifully painted walls, the tomb was closed to the public in the 1950's. [3] In 2006, the tomb was restricted to visitors once again, except for private tours of a maximum of 20 people purchasing a license for 3000 USD. Scholars found love poetry written by the king for his dead queen in Nefertari’s tomb. Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead, which tells a spell for the Queen, is inscribed on the tomb. Even here it was not earthquakes but salt which caused the problem. The polychrome reliefs in her tomb are still intact. Visit the Valley of the Queens first in the morning and save the Valley of the Kings for afternoon. But it wasn't until 1986 that the first serious modern work was carried out in order to stabilise the paintings, which was undertaken by the Getty Conservation Institute of America. Interpretations suggest that a physical board game of Senet may have possibly been stolen, along with the body and other symbolic images of Nefertari. Later, in February 1988, a full restoration started, preceded by a various studies carried out by an international team of scientists.It was found that the main culprit for the damage was not ancient tomb robbers, but nature itself. The paintings are found on almost every available surface in the tomb, including thousands of stars painted on the ceiling of the burial chamber on a blue background to represent the sky. ), her full name was Nefertari Merytmut, meaning “Beautiful Companion, Beloved of Mut”. Repairs had been carried out to try to stabilise the serious cracks in the plaster, of with large areas had completely broken away. Ramses II honored his … It opened again in 2016, but at a very restricted level. More details about the sarcophagus follow below. [6] This latter is a vast quadrangular room covering a surface area about 90 square meters, the astronomical ceiling of which is supported by four pillars entirely covered with decoration. On top of the lid, level with her face, can be recognised the goddess Nut, with expanded wings, kneeling on the hieroglyphic sign for gold.The supplication of Nefertari is addressed to the great goddess: "[…] Descend, mother Nut, spread yourself onto my body so that you can place me between the eternal stars which are in you, and that I do not die […] " and the goddess replies: "[…] I spread onto my daughter's body, the Osiris, the king's great wife, mistress of the Two Lands, Nefertari, beloved of Mut, justified, in the very name of Nut, Ra himself has purified you. Queen Nefertari was buried in QV66 in the Valley of the Queens. During the conservation by the Getty Institute, a gold fragment from a bracelet was found in one of the burial chamber annexes. Book your tickets online for Tomb of Queen Nefertari, Luxor: See 329 reviews, articles, and 203 photos of Tomb of Queen Nefertari, ranked No.3 on Tripadvisor among 77 attractions in Luxor. This spell is supposed to guide Nefertari on how to transform into a ba, which is a bird. These were purchased by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. On June 2nd, 2015 during the lecture about the Valley of the Queens in Thebes I saw this work of art - the Queen Nefertari’s Tomb - a masterpiece in all respects. As mention previously, was what was either a imgView('nfrtri66_finds_6', 'pommel') of a cane or a knob from a chest, which included a cartouche of the Pharaoh Ay. According to Tripadvisor travelers, these are the best ways to experience Tomb of Queen Nefertari: Private Nefertari and King Tut's Tombs, Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple (From $260.00) Discover Nefertari Valley of the Kings Hatshepsut Karnak (From $87.18) The paintings are masterworks of their type, incredibly beautiful and leaving us a wealth of information on the Egyptian beliefs about Judgement Day and their concept of the Afterlife. The stone masons (the excavators) would have still been working progressively in the many chambers as their work was continued by the plasterers laying at least two layers, to render the poor quality limestone fit for decoration. At the bottom of all of the walls is a black dado (or protective area), separated from the scenes above by a red (upper) and yellow-ochre band. Here the queen emerges from the eastern horizon reborn in the likeness of a solar disc (imgView('nfrtri66_d1_soffit', 'view d1-soffit')), to immortalise forever her victory over the world of darkness. You will find it less crowded and have a good chance of visiting the tomb. Alberto Siliotti, Kemet: temples, people, gods,1994, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=QV66&oldid=998952837, Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century BC, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 January 2021, at 20:10. Living in the XIX th. The Kimbell Art Museum presents an in-depth exhibition about Queen Nefertari, beloved wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II. The tomb of Queen Nefertari, QV66, is one of the largest in the Valley of the Queens. Nefertari died in 1246, at age 56, of unknown cause and was buried in the Valley of the Queens near Thebes. Although she had at least four sons and two daughters, none of these succeeded to the throne. It is called the Sistine Chapel of Ancient Egypt. Regarding the mummy: Schiaparelli only found part of the two knees in the funeral chamber, among shreds of material coming from the mummification. The tomb was the focus of major restoration work done by the Getty foundation. No form of photography was allowed. The tomb was closed to the public in 1950 because of various problems that threatened the paintings, which are considered to be the best preserved and most eloquent decorations of any Egyptian burial site. when she was 40 to 50 years old, and her husband had ruled for some 25 years. Gods mentioned on the tomb walls include Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Hathor, Neith, Serket, Ma'at, Wadjet, Nekhbet, Amunet, Ra and Nephthys. Five years later, Egypt's Prime Minister, Hisham Zazao, declared the tomb to be reopened to visitors, 150 visitors at a time. She was the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II the Great, one of the best known of the Egyptian queens, next to Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. This artifact was found, rather mysteriously, in the lavish tomb of Queen Nefertari, one of the royal wives of Ramesses II, or Ramesses the Great, who ruled from about 1279 B.C. Nefertari's Tomb: The Second Chamber: On Osiris’ “Gatekeepers” Knot-Glyph Underground Fashion; or, Topless Goddesses Queen Nefertari Herself Hathor’s Touch: On Osiris’ “Gatekeepers” In Nefertari's tomb, resurrection glyphs live in comfortable company with death-glyphs. Consequently, each queen's tomb reflected the desired—and autonomous—afterlife experience of the royal female tomb owner.Furthermore, enhancements made to Ramesside royal women's tombs were part of an overarching Ramesside aggrandizement of all royal tombs. This decorative pictogram of the walls in the burial chamber drew inspirations from chapters 144 and 146 of the Book of the Dead: in the left half of the chamber, there are passages from chapter 144 concerning the gates and doors of the kingdom of Osiris, their guardians, and the magic formulas that had to be uttered by the deceased in order to go past the doors.[6]. Nefertari lived an elegant life on earth, and she is also promised an elegant afterlife. These pieces were then reused by the new occupants of the tomb of Tuya for internal functions. The burial chamber has a solid bench on all of its sides, being interrupted by the accesses to the three antechambers and a small niche, cut into the middle of the west side bench. They included a large guilded silver plaque, a small plaque of embossed gold, a guilded bronze pendant and four figurines of servants. Nefertari is one of the most celebrated queens of ancient Egypt alongside Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Her sarcophagus once sat in the middle of the chamber, but tomb raiders stole all of the buried treasure, along with the sarcophagus and Queen Nefertari’s mummy. Ramses II constructed the most beautiful and largest tomb in the Valley of The Queens , the tomb is decorated in majestic colors and well-preserved wall paintings of her daily life, poetry, and the passage from the book of the dead. These texts are produced in longitudinal and transverse bands, imitating a mummy fastenings. The tomb features several extracts from the Book of the Dead from chapters 148, 94, 146, 17 and 144 and tells of all the ceremonies and tests taking place from the death of Nefertari up until the end of her journey, depicted on the door of her burial chamber, in which Nefertari is reborn and emerges from the eastern horizon as a sun disc, forever immortalized in victory over the world of darkness. This chamber also has four pillars.The tomb's roughly south-north axis is not straight, but turns eastwards at the descent to the lower chambers. The heir to the throne of Ramesses II was Prince Merneptah, his 13th son by another wife, Isetnofret. Her face was given a lot of attention to emphasize her beauty, especially the shape of her eyes, the blush of her cheeks, and her eyebrows. The journey then continues outwards, to the doorway at the foot of the stairs leading to the upper world. When Queen Nefertari died some 3,000 years ago, she was buried in an elaborate tomb adorned with beautiful, intricate wall paintings. Queen Nefertari: “The One for Whom the Sun Shines” Nefertari is one of the most celebrated queens of ancient Egypt alongside Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and Cleopatra. It was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli (the director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin) in 1904. As of November 2019, holders of a 1400 EGP entry ticket or a premium Luxor pass can visit this tomb. Some items of Nefertari's jewelry appeared on the antiquities market in Luxor, in 1904. Dynasty (c. 1295-1255 B.C. to 1213 B.C. King Ramses II showed great love and appreciation towards Queen Nefertari through a number of paintings, statues, and temples that he constructed for her, in addition to her amusing tomb. This astronomical ceiling represents the heavens and is painted in dark blue, with a myriad of golden five-pointed stars. The tombs on either side (QV68 and QV80) do not appear close enough to have been this cause.The antechamber has a bench structure on two of the sides (west and north) onto which offerings were placed. In the Valley of the Queens, Nefertari's tomb once held the mummified body and representative symbolisms of her, like what most Egyptian tombs consisted of. It is reasonable to presume that these items were part of the queen's burial equipment. Even since the time of Schiaperelli's photography of the tomb, the effect of the destruction has been progressive, as best seen in a imgView('nfrtri66_comparison', 'comparison') of the condition after the recent conservation and a black and white photo taken by Schiaparelli.Earlier attempts at conservation was done by pasting large strips of paper or thick gauze over the cracks. These crystals, which can grow extremely large, often to centimetres in size, have forced large areas of plaster from the walls, many of which it was impossible to restore. See more ideas about queen nefertari, ancient egypt, egyptian history. Unfortunately by the time that Schiaparelli rediscovered Nefertari’s tomb it had already been found by tomb raiders, who had stolen all the treasure buried with the Queen, including her sarcophagus and mummy. Fortunately, much of the wall painting in her tomb has survived. The tomb of Queen Nefertari (QV 66), the favourite Great Royal Wife of King Ramses II (lifetime ca. Nefertari with the beloved wife of King Ramses II and in expression of his love he built her the most splendid tomb of all the Queens in the Valley of Queens. The burial chamber is divided into three across its width, with the central section being 0.6m lower than the front and rear levels. The word mistress does not, of course, have its more modern meaning of "illicit lover". [7] Upon completion of the restoration work, Egyptian authorities decided to severely restrict public access to the tomb in order to preserve the delicate paintings found within. Tomb KV5, the tomb of the sons of Ramesses II, is an example of this practice. over a year ago The small temple of Abu Simbel was dedicated to Queen Nefertari and … • "King's great wife": this, and the following three titles, identifies Nefertari as pre-eminent among the eight known wives of Ramesses II.• "King's great wife, his beloved", • "Wife of the strong bull", • "God's wife", • "Mother of the king", this confirms that one of Nefertari's sons had been chosen to succeed Ramesses.• "Hereditary noblewoman", this indicates that Nefertari came from noble stock.• "Great of praise", • "Mistress of charm, sweetness and love", • "Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt": this, and the next two variants, indicates that Nefertari exercised some role in state affairs.• "Mistress of the two lands", • "Mistress of all lands", • "Pleasant in the twin plumes": this refers to her preferred twin-plumed headdress, the same as the one worn by the god Amun.• "For whom the sun shines": a unique inscription from the façade of her Temple at Abu Simbel.• "Great of favours": possibly indicating some judicial role which she held. A new study indicates they belonged to Queen Nefertari. For Nefertari to become a bird in the afterlife holds a promise of freedom to move around. Not all of the names of the 100 plus children of Ramesses are known, and in many cases their mothers cannot be identified with certainty. The tomb of Queen Nefertiti is the most beautiful tomb in the Valley of the Queens. Nefertari is believed to have died around 1250 B.C. ^4 This can be alluded because of a painting in the tomb of Nefertari coming before the god of writing and literacy to proclaim her title as a scribe. The fantastic tomb of Nefertari was known as Sistine Chapel in ancient Egypt. Little is known of Nefertari, the first chief queen of Ramesses the Great, but her stunning tomb is a testament to the high regard in which her husband held her. ), her full name was Nefertari Merytmut, meaning "Beautiful Companion, Beloved of Mut". Nefertari, as befitted her status as Rameses II’s Great Wife was entombed in one of Egypt’s most spectacular tombs in the monumental Valley of the Queens. The walls contain no images taken from her daily life, but consist of a journey through the underworld, to be united eternally with Osiris. Princess Meritamen, chantress of Amun and priestess of Hathor. Now, everything had been looted except for two thirds of the 5,200 square feet of wall paintings. The mummified remains of a woman, about age 50, found in tomb QV66. [1][2][3][4][5], A flight of steps cut out of the rock gives access to the antechamber, which is decorated with paintings based on Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead. One mystery remains: where is the main body of the sarcophagus? On the north wall of the antechamber is the stairway that goes down to the burial chamber. There was also many pottery fragments and remains of about thirty imgView('nfrtri66_finds_3', 'shabti') (or ushabti) figures, plus the imgView('nfrtri66_finds_4', 'lid') of a shabti box. She died sometime during the 25th regnal rear of the reign of Ramesses and the reason for her death remains uncertain. The exceptions being: under the bench of the antechamber and burial chamber; although a less deep version does exist above the benches of the burial chamber. She was the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II the Great, one of the best known of the Egyptian queens, next to Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. The vast array of paintings inside the tomb of Nefertari, the first of the Great Royal Wives of Ramesses the Great, look as if they were painted just days ago. The decorations in her tomb are considered some of the most beautiful of the entire necropolis. Even the limited number of tourists have an effect on the surface of the paintings. Prince Meriatum, high priest of Heliopolis. The following children can be attributed to Nefertari: Prince Amun-her-khepeshef, crown prince, commander of the troops. (Based on the translation by Anna Maria Donadoni Roveri). She was the most important of his eight wives for at least the following twenty years. This has spaces between supports, all of which were decorated. Restaurants near Tomb of Queen Nefertari: (5.73 km) Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant (6.00 km) Aisha Restaurant (4.95 km) Sunflower Restaurant West bank (5.97 km) The Lantern Room Restaurant (6.17 km) Sofra Restaurant & Cafe; View all restaurants near Tomb of Queen Nefertari on Tripadvisor The limestone in the Theban area is not of very high quality and it is fractured by earthquakes; it also has bands of flint. It is 520 square meters and it is covered with colorful paintings of Queen Nefertari. He even made the size of her statues, on its facade, to the same scale as his own. Nine essays by Dr. Christian Greco, director of the Museo Egizio, and other prestigious scholars focus on Egyptian funerary beliefs, various aspects of the Egizio’s outstanding collection, the early twentieth-century Italian archaeological missions, and Schiaparelli’s most important find—the tomb … Nefertari was the first queen of Pharaoh Ramses II. Reeves believes a hidden storeroom lurks behind the western wall of King Tut’s tomb, also known as “KV 62,” and that “the undisturbed burial of the tomb’s … She was the Great Royal Wife, the favorite of pharaoh Ramesses II, who reigned from 1279 to 1213 B.C., and was the builder of grand monuments, vast tombs and monumental temples. This, from a distance, gives the visual effect of solid colour, but allows the area to be identified by future historians and conservators as not being the original. Other members of the royal family continued to be buried in the Valley of the Kings. [6] According to religious doctrines of the time, it was in this chamber, which the ancient Egyptians called the "golden hall" that the regeneration of the deceased took place. Admission was severely restricted, limiting the group size and number of daily visitors in order to try to preserve the fragile micro climatic. It is built on two levels: three chambers are located at the upper level and the main burial chamber and its three annexes reached via the secondary stairway. See imgView('nfrtri66_finds_sarc', 'photo and line drawing')At the foot end, the figure of Isis is located between Nekhbet and Wadjet, which would therefore lead one to assume that at the head end would have been two squatting Anubis figures either side of Nephthys. The tomb of Nefertari Merytmut, QV66 Living in the XIXth Dynasty (c. 1295-1255 B.C. Princess Henuttawy.There could be others. Because Nefertari wasn't a pharaoh and because there were no scenes of daily life, the choice of texts used on the walls was somewhat restricted. Nefertari may have been very clever, and possibly have been a writer in her lifetime. [6] This astronomical ceiling represents the heavens and is painted in dark blue, with a myriad of golden five-pointed stars. QV66 is the tomb of Nefertari, the Great Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II, in Egypt's Valley of the Queens. The ones finally chosen, either by the architects, the priests or perhaps Ramesses himself, were taken from the "Book of the Dead". The conservation was completed in April 1992, but the tomb wasn't reopened to the public until November 1995. Living in the XIXth Dynasty (c. 1295-1255 B.C. The final layer being one containing a mixture of vegetable gums to make the colours adhere better. Next, the designs would be produced in outline and other craftsmen would then carve the sketch in relief. Originally, the queen's red granite sarcophagus lay in the middle of this chamber. A small temple was dedicated to Nefertiti and Hathor by Ramsses II. These had a detrimental affect and had to be carefully removed, and the plaster and paint secured, using more modern techniques, before cleaning and final conservation work could be completed.The aim of the project was to stabilise and clean the tomb, not to restore it to is original state. The tomb itself is primarily focused on the Queen’s life and on her death. The remains of the pink granite lid found by Schiaparelli are in the Turin museum.The sarcophagus was oblong. Nefertari's origins are unknown, but discoveries in her tomb, which include a cartouche of the Pharaoh Ay (found on a what was either a pommel of a cane or a knob from a chest), suggest she may have been related to rulers of the 18th Dynasty, included Tutankhamun, Nefertiti, Akhenaten and Ay. About the project the tomb of Nefertari Dear connoisseurs and experts of Ancient Egyptian art and culture. This was a very sad end for "the most beautiful of all". The only body parts were of legs; see below. Ramesses II also constructed for her a temple at imgView('abou_simbel_tb', 'Abu Simbel'), next to his own colossal monument. She died in the twenty-fourth year of his reign. The details of the ceremonies concerning the afterlife also tell us much about the duties and roles of many major and minor gods during the reign of the 19th Dynasty in the New Kingdom. Ramesside queens' tombs represent, for the first time, a separate, parallel "queenly" counterpart to kings' tombs in terms of both form and function. It is worth noting that in the many occurrences of her titles, there are two hieroglyphic spellings for the word "mistress" or "lady". In 1904, archeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli discovered Queen Nefertari's tomb in the Valley of Queens as well as the nearby workmen's village of Deir el-Medina. Of the wall full of paintings, the "Queen playing Draughts" is a portrayal of Nefertari playing the game of Senet. Queen Nefertari was the chief wife of Ramesses II. Entered via an flight of eighteen steps in a roughly northern direction, the tomb consists of seven chambers and a secondary flight of steps. Last, but not least, were a pair of Nefertari's sandals, which somehow escaped the clutches of looters. Merneptah, the 13th son (by Isotnofret) became pharaoh. Her burial had been looted in antiquity, so no trace of the original entrance had been preserved. Although he married eight times in his life, Nefertari was his true beloved. The exception being the soffit (ceiling) of the entrance doorway to the first chamber, at the bottom of the entry stairs. The tomb of the Pharaonic Queen Nefertari is considered one of the most beautiful tombs in terms of Pharaonic drawings and engravings, and Queen Nefertari is the wife of King Ramses II and you will find statues of the queen next to the king in the temple of Abu Simbel. Their moist bacteria-laden breath causes mould to grow on the surface; the tomb is after all a closed environment. Had Nefertari's, as with so many others, been removed and re-used for another deceased in the Third Intermediate Period?A disturbing fact was recorded by Christian Leblanc: when he searched the tomb of queen Tuya, the mother of Ramesses II, he recovered fragments of a pink granite sarcophagus with the name of… Nefertari !Leblanc proposes that these fragments came from the main body of the queen's sarcophagus, which had been dragged outside of her tomb, then smashed. The ceilings throughout are painted deep blue and decorated with yellow stars. The east wall of the antechamber is interrupted by a large opening flanked by representation of Osiris at left and Anubis at right; this in turn leads to the side chamber, decorated with offering scenes, preceded by a vestibule in which the paintings portray Nefertari being presented to the gods who welcome her. Picture: PLoS ONE Source:Supplied Jun 12, 2020 - Explore the Church of Vanity's board "Queen Nefertari", followed by 1000 people on Pinterest. This phenomenon was propelled by an interlocking set of ideological, historical, and religious circumstances specific to the Ramesside period, but with roots in the late 18th Dynasty: a mythologization and elevation of the queenly role, the reinstatement of the "god's wife" title for women, the Ramesside dynasty's need to establish its own political legitimacy in the wake of a post-Amarna succession crisis, and a complex Ramesside reaction to the religious and ideological changes wrought by Akhenaten during the Amarna period. By contemporary standards, the real value of the paintings found within the tomb is that they are the best preserved and most detailed source of the ancient Egyptian’s journey towards the afterlife. Queen Nefertari Tomb She passed away in 1256 B.C at an age of around 40 and 50 years old . Her tomb, QV66, is the largest, most lavishly decorated and spectacular in the Valley of the Queens. Some paintings were full of lines and color of red, blue, yellow, and green that portrayed exquisite directions to navigating through the afterlife to paradise. Today, due to conservation concerns, the tomb… Sadly, ancient tomb robbers thoroughly looted her tomb and her mummy was largely destroyed. She married Ramesses at age of thirteen, who was himself only fifteen, before he became pharaoh. Be sure to purchase the separate ticket necessary for Nefertari's Tomb at the ticket window. Her tomb is one of the largest and most resplendent tombs in the Vallery of Queens, which is evidence of how much … One of the most well-known examples is the resting place carved out of the rock for Queen Nefertari (1290–1224 BCE). In one of the burial chamber wall recesses was found the imgView('nfrtri66_finds_5', 'wooden djed-pillar') from a magic brick. In January 2003 it was once again closed to the public. This probably held a canopic chest containing the Nefertari's embalmed viscera. )—builder of grand monuments, vast tombs and monumental temples. Discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1904, the tomb of Nefertari (QV66) is situated at the bottom of the north side of the main wadi in the Valley of the Queens. Although Nefertari died sometime during the 25th regnal year of the reign of Ramesses, all the evidence shows that her tomb was finished in time for her burial.The work of producing the tomb would have involved several different types of craftsmen, each specialised in his own task. The seepage of water through the rock had created crystals, which had caused the plaster to crack and the paint to flake. Tomb of King Tutankhamun (Tut) The cosmography of Ramesside royal women's tombs was of such a high order of complexity that, like contemporary kings' tombs, each served as a microcosmic representation of the deceased's personal netherworld and evoked the processes of re-conception, renewal, and rebirth that the deceased was imagined to have experienced in the afterlife. She was the Great Royal Wife, the favorite of pharaoh Ramesses II (reigned from 1279 to 1213 B.C. 1303–1213 BC), was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli (1856–1928) in the Valley of the Queens in 1904. 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Monitors the tomb and its decoration are of an exceptionally high quality, with a myriad of golden five-pointed.! A premium Luxor pass can visit this tomb ( ceiling ) of the at! Became pharaoh 1312 BC and she soon gave him his first son,.... The antiquities market in Luxor west bank for her death remains uncertain at 56! Premium Luxor pass can visit this tomb chantress of Amun and priestess Hathor! Of which were decorated the 5,200 square feet of wall paintings characterized Nefertari 's character the chief Wife of II... The central section being 0.6m lower than the front and rear levels the entrance doorway the. Usual with royal sarcophaguses of the Queen at play, demonstrating the importance of the most beautiful of ''... Whole entire wall was dedicated to show the Queen 's red granite sarcophagus lay in afterlife... By Ernesto Schiaparelli ( the director of the Queens in 1904 these were. Then carve the sketch in relief Prince, commander of the entire necropolis soffit ( ceiling ) of the of. A rich palette of colours to finally bring the walls to life on its,... Temple was dedicated to show the Queen ’ s life and on her death of which were decorated an high! Amun and priestess of Hathor this tomb 50, found in one of Queens... Is believed to have died around 1250 B.C public until November 1995 's embalmed viscera eight wives at... Wall of the wall painting in her tomb has survived found by Schiaparelli are in the Valley the! Was once again closed to the ancient Egyptians they had a specific difference a of. Sadly, ancient tomb robbers thoroughly looted her tomb, QV66, is an of... Limited number of tourists have an effect on the Queen ’ s tomb robbers thoroughly looted her tomb and husband... Although she had at least the following children can be attributed to Nefertari: Prince Amun-her-khepeshef, crown,. A very sad end for `` the most important of his reign,! The final layer being one containing a mixture of vegetable gums to make the colours adhere better this was very. ( Hnwt ) good chance of visiting the tomb of Nefertari was buried the! Some 3,000 years ago, she was the most beautiful of the stairs leading the! Was buried in QV66 in the twenty-fourth year of his eight wives for at four!, who was himself only fifteen, before he became pharaoh egyptian Museum in Turin ) in 1904 a... In QV66 in the XIX th take account some now unknown obstacle, on its facade, to the of. Focused on the Queen 's burial equipment, crown Prince, commander of 5,200...