Nefertari, the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, appears in countless statues and has left us a fabulous rock-cut tomb at Abu Simbel. In her beautiful tomb, she is shown as serene and lovely, but she did not live to even the half-way point in Ramesses' reign. There were other Great Wives, so why did the mighty Ramesses honour her so greatly?

Dylan Bickerstaffe is an independent scholar who has spent the last few decades lecturing extensively and leading tours to Egypt on his own and for travel companies. He has authored/contributed to journals (KMT, Ancient Egypt, JACF, The Heritage of Egypt) and books (The Royal Cache TT320: A Re-examination (2010, ed. Belova & Graefe), An Ancient Egyptian Case Book (reprinted 2016), and Refugees for Eternity: The Royal Mummies of Thebes (published in stages)).