Tomb of Nefertari: A Royal Burial Place in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Egypt
- Primary era
- Bronze Age
- Eras represented
- Bronze Age
- Civilizations
- Egyptian
- Site type
- Burial
- Remains
- Tomb
On this page14 sections
History
Construction for a Great Royal Wife
The Tomb of Nefertari is a royal burial place in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens at Luxor, built for Nefertari during the reign of Ramesses II in the New Kingdom’s Nineteenth Dynasty. The New Kingdom was the period of ancient Egyptian imperial power from approximately the sixteenth to the eleventh century BC. Known as QV66, the tomb was among the earlier burials constructed in the valley and belonged to Nefertari, the Great Royal Wife, the principal queen in the royal household.
Ramesses II commissioned the tomb for Nefertari, whose elevated position was also expressed at the temple of Hathor at Abu Simbel. There she appeared in a divine context, while portraits and inscriptions associated with her emphasized her royal status and beauty. The decoration of QV66 presents her in several connected roles, including queen, deceased woman, recipient of divine protection, possible scribe, and participant in a journey toward immortality.
Burial and Ancient Looting
The tomb was entered and looted, possibly in antiquity. During the later excavation, rubble extended into the first hall, and the burial equipment had been removed. The loss included the sarcophagus and much of the funerary furniture, but other materials survived. These included part of Nefertari’s mummy, consisting of her legs, linen wrappings, palm-fibre sandals, about thirty ushabtis, pottery and alabaster-vessel fragments, funerary boxes and furniture, and a djed amulet. Ushabtis were small figures intended to perform tasks for the deceased in the afterlife. A box lid and a sceptre-head bearing the name of Pharaoh Ay were also recovered.
The surviving decoration explains Nefertari’s passage through death and regeneration. It incorporates spells from Chapters 17, 94, 144, 146, and 148 of the Book of the Dead, a collection of funerary texts intended to help the deceased negotiate the afterlife. The scenes present ceremonies, supernatural guardians, tests, and the queen’s eventual rebirth as a solar figure.
Discovery and Conservation
Ernesto Schiaparelli discovered QV66 in 1904 during his second excavation campaign in the Valley of the Queens. After receiving an exclusive excavation concession in 1903, he carried out systematic investigations in the valley during three successive campaigns with the assistance of Francesco Ballerini. Workmen found the first steps beneath accumulated debris north of the main wadi, revealing the entrance to the underground complex.
Water infiltration, salt formation, flaking paint, and deteriorating plaster led to the tomb’s closure to the public in the 1950s. Later openings under strict limitations were followed by further restrictions. Direct and capillary floodwater, bacterial growth, sodium chloride and other salts, and humidity from visitors’ breath all threatened the painted surfaces. Emergency stabilization began in 1986, and the Egyptian Antiquities Organization and the Getty Conservation Institute established the Nefertari Project in 1987.
The principal restoration campaign took place from 1988 to 1992. Conservators stabilized unstable paintings, removed dust and salts, strengthened walls and damaged areas, and reattached detached plaster fragments. Visual reintegration was limited to areas where it was necessary. Geological, biological, mineralogical, pigment, plaster, and microclimatic investigations accompanied the work. An exact replica of the tomb was created in the Theban necropolis in 2014, while the original continues to be monitored. The tomb was also closed for urgent renovations from 5 March to 27 October 2024.
QV66 is regarded as one of the finest and best-preserved decorated tombs in the Valley of the Queens. Its paintings provide an exceptionally detailed view of ancient Egyptian ideas about the afterlife. In design and scale, the tomb is closer to royal burials in the Valley of the Kings than to the usually simpler tombs of queens.
Remains
Layout and Entrance
The tomb follows a generally straight, subterranean plan. An entrance stairway leads to an antechamber, vestibule, and upper side chamber, followed by a second descending stairway and a large pillared burial chamber. Further side chambers, niches, and a terminal cell extend the sequence. The spaces are cut into inclined marl, a clay-rich sedimentary material containing few chert nodules. Salts occur abundantly along open joints and surfaces, especially in the lower chambers. The connecting stairway is slightly asymmetrical, probably because the burial chamber was kept from being excavated too close to the neighboring tomb of Ramesses II’s mother, reducing the risk of collapse.
Entrance Stairway
The entrance stairway is cut into the rock between whitewashed walls. It is 1.65 metres wide and descends approximately eight metres. A central sloping ramp allowed the sarcophagus to be moved and lowered into the tomb. At the lower end, a doorway bears Nefertari’s name on its jambs.
Antechamber and Vestibule
The upper antechamber has raised ledges along its western and northern sides. Two alcoves, divided by half-pillars, lead eastward through a vestibule to a side chamber decorated with offering scenes. The paintings of the antechamber draw chiefly on Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead. An opening on its eastern wall is flanked by Osiris on the left and Anubis on the right, creating a passage toward the vestibule and side chamber. These spaces represent the horizon, understood here as the boundary between the physical world and the underworld.
The antechamber includes Atum between two lions, the Bennu bird, and Nefertari’s mummified body lying on a funerary bed while Isis and Nephthys watch in falcon form. Other scenes show the necropolis gate and the protective eye symbol. Neith and Serket introduce the queen to the other deities. In the vestibule, welcoming gods receive Nefertari. The Book of the Dead explains the religious setting of these images, while the figures of Atum, Isis, Nephthys, and Anubis express creation, protection, and funerary care.
Upper Side Chamber
The upper side chamber contains scenes of Nefertari presenting linen cloth to Ptah, seeking scribal equipment from Thoth, and offering animals and incense to Osiris and Atum. She also appears before the celestial bull, seven heavenly cows, and four steering oars associated with Chapter 148 of the Book of the Dead. Another wall shows her playing senet in a kiosk on a golden throne. Senet was an ancient Egyptian board game with funerary associations, and the scene occupies the entire wall, emphasizing its place in the tomb’s imagery.
Burial Chamber and Side Rooms
Burial Chamber
A second stepped ramp descends from the antechamber to the burial chamber. Like the entrance stairway, it has a central slide for lowering the sarcophagus, and its walls carry relief decoration. The burial chamber is a quadrangular room of approximately 90 square metres. Four large pillars support its astronomical ceiling, which is painted dark or bright blue with numerous golden or yellow five-pointed stars. The red-granite sarcophagus originally stood at the center. Only fragments of it were recovered, including parts of its lid.
The chamber’s paintings draw on Chapters 144 and 146 of the Book of the Dead. They show the gates and guardians of Osiris’s realm, the formulas needed to pass them, and Nefertari before Osiris, Hathor of the West, and Anubis. The queen is also transformed into Osiris. Anubis, shown in jackal form, guards the transition toward the chamber, while Isis appears twice in a protective kneeling posture beside the entrance. Nefertari makes offerings to Hathor and Nephthys under Anubis’s protection.
Pillars and Magical Niches
The four pillars are completely covered with decoration. Their figures include Osiris-Nefertari, the djed pillar, Horus as a priest wearing a leopard skin, Nefertari receiving the ankh from Isis, and Hathor embracing the queen. The djed is a pillar-shaped symbol of stability associated with Osiris, his spine, and resurrection. Three niches for magical bricks occupy the western, eastern, and northern walls. A smaller niche decorated with the sons of Horus may have held the canopic chest, a container for vessels associated with preserving the deceased’s internal organs.
Side Chambers and Rear Cell
Three small chambers lie to the west, east, and north of the burial chamber. They probably served as storage spaces for funerary equipment. The eastern chamber shows Nefertari before Hathor, Anubis, and Isis. The western chamber includes the sons of Horus, Isis, Nephthys, and a representation of the tomb of Osiris at Abydos. Other scenes show deities holding ankhs, celestial beings, Nut, Osiris and Atum seated back to back, and a combined image of Osiris and Ra protected by Isis and Nephthys.
A rear chamber is in poor condition and has little decoration on its side walls. Its decorative style differs from that of the other rooms and may indicate that it was added later. Behind a stone slab in a niche at the rear of the sarcophagus chamber, conservators found a protective djed amulet. A fragment of gold sheet engraved with Nefertari’s name was discovered during the 1988 conservation work.
Paintings and Recovered Objects
Paintings cover almost every available surface of the tomb. Their palette includes Egyptian blue, green, red, yellow ochre, white, and black. The divine figures include Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Hathor, Neith, Serket, Ma’at, Wadjet, Nekhbet, Amunet, Ra, Nephthys, Khepri, Amun, Horus, Atum, Nut, Ptah, and Thoth. The scenes show Nefertari offering linen textiles, animals, incense, and other gifts, addressing divine guardians, and emerging from the eastern horizon as a solar disk at the conclusion of her journey.
Approximately two-thirds of the wall paintings survived looting and later deterioration. The restored painted surfaces cover about 520 square metres, although some areas remain damaged or incomplete. The excavated objects and Nefertari’s surviving mummy remains are preserved in the Museo Egizio in Turin together with other materials from the excavation. The finds include about thirty ushabtis, fragments of three pottery vessels, pieces of alabaster vessels, parts of funerary boxes and furniture, and a pair of palm-fibre sandals.
