Nefertari Merytmut was one of the Great Royal Wives of Ramesses the Great.

Nefertari means ‘Beautiful Companion’ and Merytmut means ‘Beloved of the Goddess Mut’. She is one of the best known Egyptian queens. Her lavishly decorated tomb is the largest and most spectacular in the Valley of the Queens. Ramesses also constructed a temple for her at Abu Simbel next to his colossal monument here.

Queen Nefertari’s Tomb (The Italian archeological team excavating 1904-1906 discovered the tomb of Nefertari.)

The entrance of the mortuary chamber

The goddess “Maat” is sitting with winged arms at the entrance of the mortuary chamber of the tomb.

Nefertari is playing a game of checkers in her tent. This is a game notoriously related to evil and witchcraft. Here, it is one of the talismans mentioned in the Book of Dead. / Nefertari is in adoration standing at the entrance of the temple with the bird (Alba) in the rear.

The “Ra” with the head of a hyena and the body of the God “Osiris” like a mummy, in between the Gods “Isis” and “Nephtis” to symbolize the embodiment of God “Ra” into “Osiris” and vice-versa.

Anubis is sitting on the mummification tent holding between his feet the threader and, around his neck, the linen bands used in the mummification process.

Nefertari is offering two recipients containing her sacrifices to Gods, Serket and Maat.(Serket is the goddess of healing poisonous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion.)

Isis is carrying pledge of the Nether World in her hand and offering it to Queen Nefertari. (Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic.)

The grand-priest “Harnagit Eff” is regarded as the highest religious authority of the time and probably the elder brother of the deceased Pharaoh. / Priests in ancient Egypt had a role different to the role of a priest in modern society. Though the Egyptians had close associations with their gods, they did not practice any form of organized religion, as modern times would define it.

Anubis is with Queen Nefertari in front of him in a stance of submission, granting her health, long life and constancy in the Nether World. On the bust of the Queen, one can notice the medallion of the “Awsakh”, a large pendant meaning the return to eternal life.

Ancient Egyptian mythical bird “Alba.”

The bird “Alba” with body of a bird and the head of Queen Nefertari whose task is to take the soul of the deceased and carry it to heaven.

It is believed that this bird worked with God “Ra”, rising and setting with the cycle of the sun, symbol of God “Ra”

Goddess Wadjet is carrying the duble crown on top of the sign (Nab), guarding the gate leading to the mortuary chamber.

Wadjet was the predynastic cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, a goddess originally of a city who grew to become the goddess of Lower Egypt, took the title ‘The Eye of Ra’, and one of the nebty (the ‘two ladies’) of the pharaoh. ‘She of Papyrus/Freshness’ rose from being the local goddess of Per-Wadjet (Buto) (“The House of Wadjet (Papyrus/Freshness)”) to become the patron goddess of all of Lower Egypt and ‘twin’ in the guardianship of Egypt with the vulture goddess Nekhbet. These two were the nebty (the ‘two ladies’) of the pharaoh and were an example of Egyptian duality – each of the two lands had to have its own patron goddess. Wadjet was the personification of the north.

Mehen, an Egyptian serpent god. He defends the solar bargue of the sun-god during his nightly passage through the underworld. Mehen was usually depicted as a snake coiled about the barque.

The name Mehen meaning ‘coiled one’ refers to a mythological snake-god. The earliest references to Mehen occur in the Coffin Texts. Mehen is a protective deity who is depicted as a snake which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night, for instance in the Amduat (Afterworld or Underworld). In this case, the serpent Mehen is spreading its wings to protect the cartiuche of Queen Nefertari and her mortuary slab, indicating victory of the Queen over evil.

Queen Nefertari spread like a mummy on the mummification couch and crowned with the mask of Goddess Osiris. On front and behind her, one can see the protective Goddesses of dead, Isis and Nephtis, and the God Horus shaped like a bird. In the back stage, bihind Nephtis, one can see the bird El-Beno, which is nothing but soul of the God of the Sun Ra. (Nephtis is a member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephtis was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Nephtis is occasionally regarded as the mother of the funerary-deity Anubis.)

Thoth is a God of Wisdom and Knowledge, with the head of a bird (ibis). His holds the Was Sceptre (a symbol of power and dominion) in his right hand and the Ankh (the key of the Nile symbolizing life) in the other hand. In front of him, Goddess Heqet is with the rolled papyrus carrying the name, Nefertari, standing in front of her to have her name added in the Registry of the Aaru (the Paradise of Osiris).

To the Egyptians, the frog was a symbol of life and fertility, since millions of them were born after the annual inundation (flood) of the Nile, which brought fertility to the otherwise barren lands. Consequently, in Egyptian mythology, there began to be a frog-goddess, who represented fertility, referred to by Egyptologists as Heqet, written with the determinative frog.

Nekhbet was an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology who was the patron of the city of Nekheb, her name meaning of Nekheb. Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron deities for all of Ancient Egypt when it was unified.

Ra, God of the Orient and the Occident, who is none but the union of Gods Horus and Ra and considered one of the Eternal Gods. Behind him is goddess Hathor, protectress of the Western Cemetery.

On the steps of the tomb leading to the mortuary chamber, you can see; Horus, the father, and his children, Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef.

You should know Egyptian gods more than 30, if you go to Egypt. Then it would be an enjoyable trip. Thank you.