This fresco representing Nefertari playing the game of senet comes from the tomb of the sovereign. This one wears the headdress of the great royal wives and holds the sekhem scepter The history of ancient Egypt is rich in great female political figures. We obviously think of the real "pharaohs" Hatshepsut (c. 1479-c. 1457 BC) and Cleopatra VII (51-30 BC), who held the reins of the Egyptian state for several decades. We also think of the great queens of the New Kingdom (1550-1090 BC):Nefertiti, who shared the life of Akhenaten (1371-1355 BC), but also Nefertari, the most famous of the eight wives of Ramses II (c. 1279-c. 1213 BC). If the first is known for the splendid bust preserved today in Berlin, the second is above all for its magnificent tomb in the Valley of the Queens. A closed and restored masterpiece By the size and above all the finesse of its decorations, the tomb of Nefertari is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all those found in Egypt. None of the vast sepulchers of the Valley of the Kings offers such a complete pictorial ensemble. Not that the iconographic program stands out for the originality of its themes. Unsurprisingly, it relates the journey made by the soul of the deceased after it descended into the realm of the dead presided over by Osiris. The starting point for this journey was the "Gold Room", where the queen's sarcophagus was located. There took place the gestation and the rebirth of his soul which, returning to the antechamber, was reborn in the light before "going out into the day", like the sun at the dawn of the day. Beyond this expected program in an Egyptian burial of the II th millennium BC. J.-C., what signals the tomb of Nefertari above all is due to the sharpness of the design highlighted by a harmonious use of large flat areas of bright colors. Also read:The painters of Egypt, masters of color When in 1904 the Turinese Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli entered the building, he found only scattered elements, oushebtis (funerary statuettes), a few jewels and fragments of furniture. The tomb had long since been plundered. But the beauty of the murals immediately aroused public enthusiasm, and for nearly half a century tourists flocked to visit the final resting place of the "great love of Ramses II". As at Lascaux, this procession of visitors upset the microclimate that had reigned there for two millennia. The humidity induced by breathing and perspiration accelerated the runoff and the formation of salt crystals which lifted the support of the paintings, while the various micro-organisms, fungi and molds imported from outside proliferated in a confined environment. Courageously, the Egyptian authorities took the decision to close the tomb to the public in 1950. It took nearly forty years for the restoration work to begin, led by the Italian team of Paolo and Laura Mora. From 1988 to April 1992, these specialists consolidated and restored the wall plaster, eliminating previous retouching and restoration attempts that had sometimes been made using industrial plaster! It was not until 1995 that the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities allowed the tomb to be reopened to the public, subject to a strict quota on the number of visitors. The "sweet love" wife It was during the reign of Ramesses I st (c. 1295-c. 1294 BC) that the queens began to benefit from furnished tombs (and not simple well tombs), located within a specific necropolis. The Valley of the Queens thus hosted the graves of a hundred royal wives, but also princes and, perhaps, high-ranking individuals. Many of these tombs were of mediocre workmanship or remained unfinished. How to explain in this context that the first wife of Ramesses II benefited from a funeral ensemble of this quality? The love that the pharaoh would have felt for his wife is an explanation that does not lack romanticism, but which proves, for the historian, difficult to verify. If the inscriptions relating to Nefertari abound in amorous epithets - "sweet with love", "beautiful of aspect", "full of charms" - and encourage to believe that Ramesses II was deeply in love with his wife, it is nevertheless necessary to make notice that some of them come from the queen's tomb, where – and this is a key fact – the sovereign does not figure anywhere! Also read:Nefertiti, an Egyptian beauty In fact, what we know of Nefertari's biography evokes more the woman of power than the desperate lover. The fact that she was a native of Akhmim, an important city in northern Upper Egypt, which controlled both the Nile and access to the Western Desert, is in itself revealing. This city had indeed already given a great queen to Egypt in the person of Tiy, wife of Amenhotep III (v. 1391-v. 1353 BC), daughter of a powerful local family, but also the pharaoh Ay (v. 1346-1343 BC), successor of Tutankhamun, who settled the political crisis opened by the reign of Akhenaten. The great families of Akhmim therefore lived in close proximity to the crown and constituted a relay in Upper Egypt for a monarchy whose center of gravity then tended to move towards the north, that is to say the region of Memphis and the river delta. Most likely descended from one of these patrician families of the South, Nefertari remained throughout her life strongly linked to her city of origin. Thus, the pylon of the mortuary temple of Ramesses II preserved a representation of the feast of the god Min - the local god of Akhmim - showing the queen performing a dance in front of a bull symbolizing this deity. A love for political reasons As queen, Nefertari was closely involved in the affairs of state. From the first year of Ramses II's reign, she took part in various ceremonies, some of which were of major political importance. In the Theban tomb of Nebounenef, we see her standing alongside her husband during the ceremony during which the deceased was raised by the pharaoh to the eminent function of high priest of Amun of Thebes. The queen was also associated with the foreign policy of the monarchy. A cuneiform tablet discovered in Bogazköy, Turkey, where the capital of the Hittite kingdom was located, testifies to the correspondence that Nefertari maintained with Queen Pudukhep, wife of the Hittite king Hattusili III. We see the wives of the two most powerful monarchs of the time exchanging, in addition to strong courtesies, jewelry and gold objects. The tomb testifies to the political capacities of a queen on whom Ramses II, a man from a military family, knew how to rely to impose his hold on Upper Egypt. But it is at Abu-Simbel, opposite the semi-troglodyte temple that was dedicated to him, that Nefertari's power is most evident. To the right of the great temple dedicated to Ramses II stands a building dedicated to the cult of the queen who is assimilated to the goddess Hathor. Access to the sanctuary is guarded by a series of colossal statues whose majesty has nothing to envy to the royal colossi that stand nearby. The temple and the tomb thus testify to the political capacities of a queen on whom Ramses II, a man from the North, from a military family, knew how to rely to impose his hold on Upper Egypt. Installed in his capital Pi-Ramses (now Qantir), in the eastern delta, Ramses II needed the support of the great patrician families of the South from which his wife came. In addition to a love whose existence one can only suppose, it is indeed this that the beautiful Nefertari of Akhmim brought him and which earned this queen to rest in the most beautiful of Egyptian tombs. Find out more • Nefertari. "The Beloved-of-Mout", C. Leblanc, Éditions du Rocher, 1999.• Queens of the Nile in the New Empire, C. Leblanc, Bibliotheque des Introuvables, 2010.• Queens of Egypt. From Hetepheres to Cleopatra, C. Ziegler, Somogy, 2008. Timeline 1255 BC. AD Nefertari, the great royal wife of Ramses II, dies. She is buried in the tomb arranged for her in the Valley of the Queens. His tomb was looted seven years later.1904 The Italian archaeologist and director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Ernesto Schiaparelli, discovers the tomb of Nefertari following the lead given to him by a grave robber.1986 After the tomb was closed in the 1950s, an ambitious restoration project was launched, funded by the Getty Institute and led by Italian and Egyptian restorers.1995 After its restoration, the tomb of Nefertari opened to the public then closed definitively in 2003, because of the damage that the humidity started to produce on the paintings. The woman who fascinated Ramesses II Nefertari held a special place in the heart of Ramesses II. Proof of this are the monuments that the Pharaoh erected in honor of the woman who died forty years before him. The paintings that adorn the tomb of Nefertari are the work of the greatest artists of the Court. They testify to a mastery never observed in other royal tombs. Whether he acted out of love or political interest, Ramses was not content to dedicate a splendid abode of eternity to her. At Abu-Simbel, next to his great funerary temple, he had a secondary temple erected, dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Nefertari. These temples were inaugurated around year 24 of the reign of the pharaoh, shortly before the death of the queen. In this monument is a famous inscription:"The great royal wife Nefertari, she for whom the sun shines." » An abode of eternity The tomb of Nefertari (QV66 for archaeologists) is one of the largest in the Valley of the Queens. Its structure presents the same simplicity as other tombs of the XIX th dynasty:an access staircase, a sealed door, an antechamber, a second staircase and a burial chamber built on a lower level and connected to annexes intended to receive the offerings. It is in the center of this room that the sarcophagus containing the mummy rested. The main interest of the tomb lies in its decoration:the 5,600 square meters of walls are covered with frescoes illustrating the journey that the queen will take to reach eternity. Coins forgotten by looters When Ernesto Schiaparelli entered the tomb of Nefertari in 1904, he realized that this tomb had already been plundered in antiquity. Despite everything, elements of the queen's funerary furniture were found there, including fragments of a sarcophagus in pink granite, pieces of a gilded wooden coffin and some 34 ushabtis (funerary figurines) in painted wood. In a small niche in the burial chamber was a djed pillar acting as an amulet. There was also found the button of a chest on which was inscribed the name of the pharaoh Ay (XVIII e dynasty), the lid of another chest, sandals and pieces of rope and fabric. In 1988, a small gold plate was discovered that could have belonged to a bracelet. A richly adorned sovereign On the decoration of the tomb, the deceased queen is almost always represented in the same way:she wears a long white dress, almost transparent, on which is superimposed another pleated dress. Her black tripartite wig is surmounted by a golden crown, in the shape of a vulture with outstretched wings, an animal assimilated to the goddess Mut. The vulture carries on its back a small red platform surmounted by two long feathers. This hairstyle is characteristic of tall royal wives, as is the sekhem scepter . Various jewels complete her outfit, from the imposing necklace usekh to bracelets and a wide variety of earrings, including a silver fan and a king cobra.
