I seem to recall errors at 0.5.35 with this rewrite: >>rewrite ^(.+)$ /index.php?q=$1 last; Instead try: rewrite ^(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 last; If you upgrade to 0.6.29 you shouldn't have any issues with the original rewrite. Many high traffic sites are using 0.6.29 - including wordpress.com.