QV66 is the tomb of Nefertari, the Great Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II, in Egypt's Valley of the Queens. It was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli (the director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin) in 1904. Nefertari, which means "The most beautiful (one) among them", was Ramesses II's favorite wife; he went out of his way to make this obvious, referring to her as "the one for whom the sun shines" in his writings, built the Temple of Hathor at Abu Simbel to idolize her as a deity, and commissioned portraiture wall paintings. In the Valley of the Queens, Nefertari's tomb once held the mummified body and representative symbolisms of her, consistent with most Egyptian tombs of the period. Now, everything has been looted except for two thirds of the 5,200 square feet of wall paintings. For what still remains, these wall paintings characterized Nefertari's character. Her face received particular attention to emphasize her beauty, especially the shape of her eyes, the blush of her cheeks, and her eyebrows. Some paintings were full of lines and color of red, blue, yellow, and green that portrayed exquisite directions to navigating through the afterlife to paradise.
Discovery of the tomb
thumb|left|Entrance to the tomb at the time of its discovery, photographed from the descending steps, 1904. Photographic Archive, [[Museo Egizio, Turin.]]
The tomb was discovered in 1904 in the Valley of the Queens, at Thebes (west bank), by the Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, who was professor of Egyptology at the University of Turin and greatly expanded the collection of the Museo Egizio, where he served as director from 1884 to 1928.
In 1903 Schiaparelli obtained from the Egyptian authorities the exclusive concession to excavate in the Valley of the Queens; he was the first Egyptologist to conduct investigations at the site with a systematic method in three successive campaigns, assisted by his capable collaborator Francesco Ballerini.
During the second campaign, while Schiaparelli was carrying out surveys to the north of the main wadi in the area, where other tombs had already been found, the workmen uncovered the first steps of a staircase that they considered a sure sign of a tomb. After removing the masses of debris covering the steps, they quickly brought to light a staircase cut into the rock between two whitewashed walls, with in the middle the characteristic descending ramp that was necessary to move and lower the sarcophagus. The staircase, 1.65 m wide, descended for eight metres to a large wall with a doorway; on the door jambs the queen's name was written. The tomb, however, was found open, with no trace of the original sealing, and much rubble had fallen as far as the first hall. The other rooms were found empty, and it was clear that the tomb had been looted, perhaps already in antiquity. Of the pink granite sarcophagus only a few pieces were recovered, including several fragments of the lid. Of the grave goods, which must originally have been numerous, only about thirty ushabti figures, some parts of three pottery vessels and others in alabaster, and some fragments of funerary caskets and furniture were found.
Schiaparelli recovered only part of the mummy—the legs Museo Egizio, Turin (S.5154).
</gallery>
Decoration and layout
thumb|left|Map of QV66's layout
thumb|Fragmentary lid of the sarcophagus of queen Nefertari, granite. [[Museo Egizio, Turin.]]
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 representation of Osiris at left and Anubis at right; this in turn leads to the side chamber, decorated with offering scenes, preceded by a vestibule in which the paintings portray Nefertari being presented to the gods who welcome her. On the north wall of the antechamber is the stairway that goes down to the burial chamber. The paintings are found on almost every available surface in the tomb, including thousands of stars painted on the ceiling of the burial chamber on a blue background to represent the sky.thumb|Nefertari shown offering to the goddesses [[Maat, Serket, and Hathor]]After the discovery of the tomb, scientists found deterioration in many paintings caused by water damage, bacterial growth, salt formation, and recently, the humidity of visitors' breath. There are two factors that damaged the tomb at a rapid rate: capillary absorption of trapped flood-waters into the tomb's walls and direct entry of flood-waters. Flood-water causes immediate damage to the tomb, while absorbed waters cause morphological changes that contribute to the deterioration of paint and plaster. Upon completion of the restoration work, Egyptian authorities decided to severely restrict public access to the tomb in order to preserve the delicate paintings found within. Five years later, Egypt's Prime Minister, Hisham Zazao, declared the tomb to be reopened to visitors, 150 visitors at a time.