If we mention the famous women of Egypt, including Hatshepsut and Cleopatra along with them we would have to name Nefertari, if for no other reason then her well known tomb in the Valley of the Queens. Nefertari was most likely Ramesses II's first wife when the prince was only fifteen. She provided him with his first male even prior to his ascending the throne of Egypt.

Surely Ramesses II loved Nefertari. Few queens were built anything near as grand a shrine as her temple dedicated to Hathor at Abu Simbel, near the somewhat larger temple of her husband. He said of her, "the one for whom the sun shines".

From her tomb, we know a number of her other names and titles. They included " Great of Favors; Possessor of Charm, Sweetness and Love; Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt; The King's Great Wife; Mistress of the Two Lands".

Her tomb in the Valley of the Queens on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes) is today, one of the most fabulously decorated tombs at Luxor or anywhere else in Egypt. If one had only time enough to visit one tomb on the West Bank, it should be this one.