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Nefertari in hieroglyphs: her name, her temple and her tomb
25 October 2026
Nefertari's name is written with five signs: the heart and windpipe for nfr, "beautiful", the bread loaf t, the reed leaf, the mouth r and two strokes. Together they read nfrt-iry, said "nefer-tari". It sits inside a cartouche, like a king's name.
She was the first Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, married to him before he became king, around 1279 BC. Her full name was Nefertari Meritmut, "beloved of Mut". Ramesses gave her a temple of her own at Abu Simbel, and her tomb in the Valley of the Queens is the most richly painted one there.
Five signs spell Nefertari
The first sign is a heart with the windpipe rising from it (F35). It writes nfr, "good" or "beautiful", one of the commonest word-signs in Egyptian. The small half-loaf under it (X1) is t, the ending of a feminine word: nfrt, "the beautiful one".
The second word is iry. The reed leaf (M17) gives i, the mouth (D21) gives r, and the two slanting strokes (Z4) add the final y. The usual translation of the whole is "beautiful companion". Some Egyptologists read it differently, as "the most beautiful of them", since iry can also mean "belonging to them".
Her second name tied her to the goddess Mut
On temple walls Nefertari's cartouche often runs on: nfrt-iry mrjt-n-mwt, Nefertari Meritmut, "beloved of Mut". Mut was the wife of Amun at Thebes. The hoe sign (U7) writes mr, "to love", the same sign that turns a king into "beloved of Amun".
Her titles stand outside the ring. The commonest is ḥmt nswt wrt, "Great Royal Wife". Others call her Lady of the Two Lands and Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt. At Abu Simbel her dedication adds a line found nowhere else: she is the one "for whose sake the sun shines".
Her family stayed out of the records
Where Nefertari came from is unknown. A knob carved with the name of King Ay was found in her tomb, and some have guessed at a link to the late 18th Dynasty. Nothing proves it. Her parents are never named.
Her children are better known. She bore Ramesses at least four sons and two daughters. The eldest, Amun-her-khepeshef, was crown prince and commander of the army. Another, Meryatum, became High Priest of Ra at Heliopolis. None of her sons became king. Ramesses outlived twelve of his sons, and his thirteenth, Merneptah, was the son of another wife.
She also wrote to the Hittite court. Clay tablets found at Hattusa, in Turkey, hold her letters to King Hattusili III and Queen Puduhepa, in cuneiform, where her name is spelled Naptera. One lists her gift to Puduhepa: a gold necklace of twelve strands and fine clothes.
At Abu Simbel she stands as tall as the king
Ramesses had two temples cut into the cliff at Abu Simbel. The smaller one is for Hathor and for Nefertari. Six standing statues line its façade, four of the king and two of the queen, all about ten metres high. A queen carved at the same size as her husband was rare.
Inside, Nefertari offers to Hathor and to Isis, and her cartouches are large and deeply cut. Her name also appears in the Great Temple, beside the legs of the king's colossi. Nefertari last appears in the records before year 24 of Ramesses' reign, around 1255 BC, about the time the temples were finished.
Her tomb holds the finest paintings in the Valley of the Queens
Nefertari was buried in tomb QV66 in the Valley of the Queens, on the west bank at Luxor. Ernesto Schiaparelli found it in 1904. Robbers had taken almost everything in antiquity. Pieces of a mummy, among them a pair of knees that are most probably hers, went to the Museo Egizio in Turin with her sandals and shabti figures.
The walls survived. Nefertari plays senet, a board game, and meets the gods, with columns of painted hieroglyphs from the Book of the Dead around her. Her name appears again and again, its signs painted in full colour: the red heart of nfr, the green reed leaf. Ramesses never appears in the tomb.
Salt and damp threatened the plaster, and the Getty Conservation Institute and Egypt's antiquities service restored the paintings between 1988 and 1992. Visits are limited and need a separate ticket, and the rules change.
Nefertari's cartouche reads top to bottom
Write the heart and windpipe at the top, the loaf under it, then the reed leaf and the mouth, and the two strokes at the bottom. If the signs face right, read from the right. The same five signs, in the same order, open the name in her tomb, at Abu Simbel and at Luxor, where she leads the royal children on the walls of Ramesses' court.
Questions
What does the name Nefertari mean?
It is usually translated "beautiful companion". Some scholars prefer "the most beautiful of them". Her second name, Meritmut, means "beloved of Mut".
Is Nefertari the same person as Nefertiti?
No. Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten, about 70 years earlier. The names share the word nfr, "beautiful", and nothing else.
Can you visit the tomb of Nefertari?
Yes, on a separate and expensive ticket, for a short visit. The tomb has been closed and reopened several times to protect the paintings, so check before you go.
How did Nefertari die?
No record says. She disappears from the monuments before year 24 of Ramesses II, and Isetnofret, another of his wives, then appears as Great Royal Wife.
Glossary
- Book of the Dead
- A collection of spells written on papyrus and placed in burials from the New Kingdom on, to guide the dead through the afterlife. Egyptians called it the Spells for Coming Forth by Day.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- hieroglyphs
- The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
- Lower Egypt
- The north of Egypt, the flat Nile Delta from around Memphis to the sea. It is called lower because it is downstream.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- priest
- A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
- shabti
- A small figure placed in a tomb to do farm work in the afterlife for the person buried there.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Abu Simbel site
- Valley of the Queens site
- Tomb of Nefertari (QV66) monument
- Luxor Temple site
Sources
More to read
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- Senusret III in hieroglyphs: Khakaure, the king with the tired face Senusret III in hieroglyphics: his cartouche Khakaure read sign by sign, his birth name, the Semna border stela and where to see his careworn statues.
- Alexander the Great in hieroglyphs: a Macedonian king in a cartouche Alexander the Great in hieroglyphics: his name spelled sign by sign as Aleksandros, his throne name, and the shrine at Luxor where he offers to Amun.