The tomb of Nefertari, the one for whom the sun shines

Buried in Egypt's Valley of the Queens, the tomb of Nefertari was discovered in 1904 by the Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli. Nefertari, which means 'The most beautiful (one) among them', was the favorite wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II. He referred to her in his writings as 'the one for whom the sun shines', built the Temple of Hathor at Abu Simbel to idolize her as a deity, and commissioned portraiture wall paintings. While most of the tomb's contents were looted by tomb raiders, two thirds of the 5,200 square feet of wall paintings remain, characterizing Nefertari's character through details of her beauty.

The tomb's paintings portray exquisite directions for navigating the afterlife to paradise, featuring lines and colors of red, blue, yellow, and green. A flight of steps cut out of the rock gives access to the antechamber, which is decorated with paintings based on Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead. This astronomical ceiling represents the heavens and is painted in dark blue, with a myriad of golden five-pointed stars. The east wall of the antechamber is interrupted by a large opening flanked by representations of Osiris and Anubis, leading to a side chamber decorated with offering scenes.

The stairway on the north wall of the antechamber leads down to the burial chamber, a vast quadrangular room covering about 90 square meters. The astronomical ceiling of this chamber is supported by four pillars entirely covered with decoration. Originally, the queen's red granite sarcophagus lay in the middle of this chamber, which the ancient Egyptians called the 'golden hall'. The decorative pictograms on the walls drew inspiration from chapters 144 and 146 of the Book of the Dead, describing the gates of the kingdom of Osiris and the magic formulas required to pass them.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons