Valley of the Queens: An Honest Guide to Luxor's Other Royal Valley

What is the Valley of the Queens?

The valley's Egyptian name was Ta-Set-Neferu, usually read as the place of beauty or the place of the royal children. Eighteenth-dynasty burials here belonged mostly to princesses and court officials, in plain shafts. It became the main burial ground for royal wives and sons under the Ramesside kings of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties. Close to a hundred tombs have been numbered, and most are undecorated shafts, unfinished, or emptied long ago.

The location was not random. Over the ridge lies Deir el-Medina, the village of the craftsmen who cut and painted these tombs, and the same hands worked both valleys. A cave at the head of the valley, associated with Hathor, is one likely reason the site was chosen. Near the entrance stand the remains of Deir el-Rumi, a small monastery of the Roman and Byzantine period, so the valley kept being used long after the pharaohs.

How is it different from the Valley of the Kings?

Scale and technique. Tombs in the Valley of the Kings are long corridors driven deep into good limestone, decorated in carved relief, with pillared halls, star ceilings and stone sarcophagi still in place. The Queens' tombs are small: a stair, a short corridor, a chamber or two. The rock here is poorer, so walls were plastered and painted rather than carved. What you look at is picture-making, not architecture.

Crowds differ too. Coach itineraries take the Kings and Hatshepsut, so this valley is often quiet unless Nefertari is open. The subject matter is more personal as well: instead of the dense royal afterlife books that fill the Kings' walls hour by hour, you get one named individual, sometimes a child, being introduced to the gods. If you can fit only one valley into a trip, go to the Kings. The Queens beats it only if you hold a Nefertari ticket.

Is Nefertari's tomb worth the separate ticket?

QV66 belonged to the chief wife of Ramesses II and was found in 1904 by an Italian expedition. Salt pushing out through the plaster nearly destroyed it. A long conservation programme in the 1980s and 1990s stabilised the paint, and the tomb reopened under tight control. It has its own ticket, sold at the valley, a limit on how many people go in each day, and a short visit timed by a guard at the door. It costs many times an ordinary tomb ticket.

Yes, if painted walls are the reason you came to Luxor: this is the best-preserved painted tomb in Egypt and nothing else comes close. No, if you are working through the big sites on a budget. The visit is short, photography cannot be relied on, and Sennedjem's tomb at Deir el-Medina or a couple of the nobles' tombs give far more painted wall for the money. Access has been suspended before, so treat it as a decision to make in Luxor, not months ahead.

What is actually inside QV66?

A steep flight of steps drops to an upper chamber with a side room, then a second stair reaches the pillared burial chamber. The decoration is raised relief modelled in plaster rather than cut into rock, which gives the figures a soft, rounded surface that carved tombs do not have. Nefertari appears in white linen and gold, led by Isis and by Horus son of Isis, and in one panel plays a board game against an opponent you cannot see. Ceilings are deep blue with yellow stars.

Which other tombs are usually open?

Three, and the selection rotates. Amunherkhepshef and Khaemwaset were sons of Ramesses III who died young. In both, the king takes his son by the hand and presents him to the gods, which is an unusual thing to see on a tomb wall: the father doing the introducing. Amunherkhepshef has the freshest colour and the cleanest cutting, and its burial chamber was left unfinished.

This Khaemwaset is not the famous son of Ramesses II, the high priest who repaired old monuments; the names repeat and guidebooks confuse them. The third tomb belongs to a queen called Titi, whose king cannot be identified with confidence, with softer colour and animal-headed guardians in the burial chamber. Each tomb takes five to ten minutes to see. With the walking between them, the standard ticket fills about three quarters of an hour.

How does it fit into a West Bank morning?

Heat sets the order. Start at the Valley of the Kings when it opens, before the coaches. Go to Hatshepsut second, because the terraces are a sun trap with no shade. Then the Queens, Deir el-Medina, or the tombs of the nobles. Finish at Medinet Habu, where the high walls give shade and colour survives on the ceilings. The Colossi of Memnon are a five-minute stop at the roadside.

Drives between the sites run five to fifteen minutes, so the whole West Bank fits into a morning if you do not linger. If Nefertari matters to you, come to the Queens first, since the daily allocation can go early. If not, slot this valley in between larger things rather than building the day around it.

What should you know about heat, rules and comfort?

There is no shade in the valley. The rock is pale and reflective, and the bowl holds heat. West Bank afternoons in summer regularly pass 40°C, so between June and August you want to be finished by mid-morning. From October to March the timing is relaxed. Inside is worse than outside: a sealed rock chamber with people breathing in it turns hot and airless, which matters if you struggle with heat or have weak lungs.

Two rules catch people out. Licensed guides are generally not allowed to speak inside the tombs at Luxor, so you get the explanation outside and go in alone. Ask your questions before you descend. And photography rules change often, with permits appearing and disappearing, so assume nothing. Carry water, a hat, small notes for the toilets, and shoes that grip on dusty steps.