Attention:

• Change the values to match you system and check all settings, as some of them might not be want you want.
• This examples for nginx using php-fpm. You can check the installation tutorial for nginx + php-fpm here. But you don’t want to use php-fpm change the examples accordantly.

Magento Http Example

server {
    ## Limits remote clients to no more than 10 concurrently "open"
    ## connections per remote ip address.
    limit_conn arbeit 10;
    server_name www.domain.com;
    root /var/www/domain.com/public_html/;

    ## Parameterization using hostname of access and log filenames.
    access_log /var/www/domain.com/logs/access.log;
    error_log /var/www/domain.com/logs/error.log;

    ## UNCOMMENT TO DISPLAY MAINTENANCE PAGE
    ## If not ip 111.222.333.444 redirect to error503.html
    #if ($remote_addr != "111.222.333.444") { return 503; }
    #error_page 503 @maintenance;
    #location @maintenance { rewrite ^(.*)$ /error503.html break; }    

    ## Disable all methods besides HEAD, GET and POST.
    if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD|POST)$ ) {
        return 444;
    }

    ## If no favicon exists return a 204 (no content error).
    location = /favicon.ico {
        try_files $uri =204;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }    

    ## Don't log robots.txt requests.
    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    ## Magento uses a common front handler
    location @handler {
        rewrite / /index.php;
    }  

    location / {
        index index.php;
        try_files $uri $uri/ @handler;  ## If missing pass the URI to Magento's front handler
        expires 30d; ## Assume all files are cachable
    }

    ## Static files are served directly without passing through the handler.
    location ~* \.(jpe?g|gif|css|png|js|ico|pdf|zip|tar|t?gz|mp3|wav|swf)$ {
        access_log off; ## Do not log access to these files
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    ## Keep a tab on the 'big' static files.
    location ~* ^.+\.(?:m4a|mp[34]|mov|ogg|flv|pdf|ppt[x]*)$ {
        expires 30d;
    }

    ## RECOMMENDED TO UNCOMMENT
    ## Protect the install.php with password, more info in:
    ## http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/programs/htpasswd.html
    #location = /install.php {
    #    auth_basic "Restricted Access"; # auth realm
    #    auth_basic_user_file .htpasswd-users; # htpasswd file
    #}     

    ## Enable access to certain folders
    location /lib/minify/ {
        allow all;
    }    

    ## Disable .htaccess and other hidden files
    location /. {
        return 404;
    }

    ## Disable access to certain folders located at the root of the fodler
    location ~ ^/(app|includes|media/downloadable|pkginfo|var)/ {
        return 404;
    }

    ## Disable access to specific files
       location ~* (/report/config.xml)$ {
        return 404;
    }

    ## Disable access to certain files matching specified file types
    location ~* ^.*(\.(?:git|svn|htaccess|txt|po[t]*))$ {
        return 404;
    }    

    # Deny access based on the User-Agent header.
    if ($http_user_agent ~* (HTTrack|HTMLParser|libwww) ) {
	return 444;
    }

    # Deny access based on the Referer header.
    if ($http_referer ~* (babes|click|diamond|forsale|girl|jewelry|love|nudit|organic|poker|porn|poweroversoftware|sex|teen|video|webcam|zippo|casino|replica) ) {
	return 444;
    }

    ## Forward paths like /js/index.php/x.js to relevant handler
    location ~ .php/ {
        rewrite ^(.*.php)/ $1 last;
    }    

    ## Execute PHP scripts
    location ~ .php$ { ## Execute PHP scripts
        expires off; ## Do not cache dynamic content
        include /usr/local/nginx/conf/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}

Magento Https Example

server {
    ## Limits remote clients to no more than 10 concurrently "open"
    ## connections per remote ip address.
    limit_conn arbeit 10;

    listen 443 default ssl;
    ssl                  on;
    ssl_certificate     /etc/nginx/ssl/domain.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/domain.com.key;

    server_name www.domain.com;
    root /var/www/domain.com/public_html/;

    ## Parameterization using hostname of access and log filenames.
    access_log /var/www/domain.com/logs/access.log;
    error_log /var/www/domain.com/logs/error.log;

    ## UNCOMMENT TO DISPLAY MAINTENANCE PAGE
    ## If not ip 111.222.333.444 redirect to error503.html
    #if ($remote_addr != "111.222.333.444") { return 503; }
    #error_page 503 @maintenance;
    #location @maintenance { rewrite ^(.*)$ /error503.html break; }   

    ## Disable all methods besides HEAD, GET and POST.
    if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD|POST)$ ) {
        return 444;
    }

    ## If no favicon exists return a 204 (no content error).
    location = /favicon.ico {
        try_files $uri =204;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }    

    ## Don't log robots.txt requests.
    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    ## Magento uses a common front handler
    location @handler {
        rewrite / /index.php;
    } 

    location / {
        index index.php;
        try_files $uri $uri/ @handler;  ## If missing pass the URI to Magento's front handler
        expires 30d; ## Assume all files are cachable
    }

    ## Static files are served directly.
    location ~* \.(jpe?g|gif|css|png|js|ico|pdf|zip|tar|t?gz|mp3|wav|swf)$ {
        access_log off; ## Do not log access to these files
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    ## Keep a tab on the 'big' static files.
    location ~* ^.+\.(?:m4a|mp[34]|mov|ogg|flv|pdf|ppt[x]*)$ {
        expires 30d;
    }

    ## RECOMMENDED TO UNCOMMENT
    ## Protect the install.php with password, more info in:
    ## http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/programs/htpasswd.html
    #location = /install.php {
    #    auth_basic "Restricted Access"; # auth realm
    #    auth_basic_user_file .htpasswd-users; # htpasswd file
    #} 

    ## Enable access to certain folders
    location /lib/minify/ {
        allow all;
    }   

    ## Disable .htaccess and other hidden files
    location /. {
        return 404;
    }

    ## Disable access to certain folders located at the root of the fodler
    location ~ ^/(app|includes|media/downloadable|pkginfo|var)/ {
        return 404;
    }

    ## Disable access to certain files
       location ~* (/report/config.xml)$ {
        return 404;
    }

    ## Disable access to certain files
    location ~* ^.*(\.(?:git|svn|htaccess|txt|po[t]*))$ {
        return 404;
    }   

    # Deny access based on the User-Agent header.
    if ($http_user_agent ~* (HTTrack|HTMLParser|libwww) ) {
	return 444;
    }

    # Deny access based on the Referer header.
    if ($http_referer ~* (babes|click|diamond|forsale|girl|jewelry|love|nudit|organic|poker|porn|poweroversoftware|sex|teen|video|webcam|zippo|casino|replica) ) {
	return 444;
    }

    ## Forward paths like /js/index.php/x.js to relevant handler
    location ~ .php/ {
        rewrite ^(.*.php)/ $1 last;
    }    

    location ~ .php$ { ## Execute PHP scripts
            expires off; ## Do not cache dynamic content
            include /usr/local/nginx/conf/fastcgi_params;
            fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

            fastcgi_param HTTPS $fastcgi_https;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
            fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
        }
}

Sources