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Nefertari: into the Valley of the Queens
The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Minerva's Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.
In 1904, a group of archaeologists entered one of the largest tombs, and the most richly decorated, in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens at Thebes. In this small wadi, a dried riverbed in the western Theban desert, Egyptians of the New Kingdom (c.1539-1075 BC) buried members of the royal family and high-ranking officials and courtiers. Nearly 100 tombs were cut into the rock of the main wadi, most with a series of rooms leading to a burial chamber, where an eminent figure was interred in a stone coffin.
When archaeologists entered the tomb of Nefertari in 1904, they found it had already been looted. Within the queen’s plundered tomb, they found shabtis, vases, pieces of furniture and faien
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