Vangelis

Néfertari , Nofretari, Mery-in-Must “most beautiful of all” is the first Grande royal wife of the Pharaon Ramsès {{II}} which lived under around the XIII E.

It is one of the eight known wives of Ramsès. It is thought that he would have married Néfertari, 19 years old, before going up on the throne, and this, during the corégence with his/her father Séthi {{Ier}}. It was always the principal wife of Ramsès, although this one had with Isisnofret a son, Mérenptah, which will become Pharaon.

It gave several wire to Ramsès, but none survived the exceptional longevity of their father; their first wire Amenherkhepshef was considered, before its early death, as being crown prince during first half of the reign of his/her father. It is also the mother of Mérytamon which will become queen in her turn.

Néfertari was a figure importance of this time; it had a great influence on the monarch who took account of his remarks and his councils; she assisted it in all the royal and religious functions as a wife of God. Mistress of the High and Low-Egypt, Mistress of charm, Soft of love, Rich person of praise, the epithets more the sublimes were employed to qualify it.

It was surely the great love of Ramsès, proof is the frontage of the small temple with Abou Simbel that Ramsès dedicated to him, with it and Hathor, goddess of the joy, the music, the beauty and the love that Néfertari incarnated on ground; in this temple, its sculptures have the same size as those of the Pharaon.

“Ramsès built a temple dug in the mountain for the first royal wife Néfertari Meryen-Must. ”

And last homage, Ramsès made build in the most beautiful Vallée of the Queens fall that one discovered to date.

Genealogy

Burial

Its fall into the Valley of the Queens

The tomb of Néfertari (QV66 in the Valley of the Queens) was discovered during the second excavation campaign of Schiaparelli on the northern slope of the principal ouadi. It falls on staircases. With the end, on the lintel he sees a representation of the horizon surrounded by two oudjat and goddesses Nephtys and Isis in worship. Around two are painted cartridges in the name of Néfertari.

The tomb had already been opened and, as they discovered later, plundered.

Masonries had fallen on the staircases and in the first room they reached almost the ceiling. The other parts were practically collapsed, the covered mud ground (many infiltrations of rain).

Since this first room one reaches a kind of alcove which leads to a smaller rectangular room. At the bottom of the first part, a staircase led in the room of the fleshfly made up of four pillars and three small rooms on each remaining wall of the part.

In the middle of the room of the sarcophagus, Schiaparelli finds:

of the pieces of the pink granite sarcophagus,
of small fragments of sarcophagus out of wooden covered with gold,
34 Ouchebti S in the name of Néfertari,
three large vases of pieces,
a few pieces of mummy and remainders of fabric it surrounding,
of the pieces of alabaster vases,
of enamels,
of the pieces of funerary and movable cassette funerary.

It finds also a flower of enamel dark blue lotus which was to be used as handle with a lid of trunk in the name of Aÿ (Pharaon of).

In a small niche dug in the stone in the wall of the bottom of the room of the sarcophagus and covered with a plasterboard camouflaging it, it finds an amulet.

Although there are only few objects, this tomb is one of most beautiful of the valley because its decorations are quasi intact (precise bright colors and style). But the infiltrations in the walls weakened it and the walls should have been consolidated. Closed with the visits in the years 1950 for restoration, reopening took place only in November 1995, the admission of the visitors being subject to very strict rules (higher cost of entry, limited number) in order to preserve as much as possible the splendid decorations. A counterpart at summer made up life size in the basement of the museum of Téssé to Mans.

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