The Tomb of Seti I (KV17)

Who Seti I Was

Seti I ruled Egypt from about 1294 to 1279 BC and was the father of Ramesses II. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities credits KV17 as the first tomb in the valley to be entirely decorated and the first with a vaulted burial chamber. The design follows a joggled axis, with four entry hallways labelled A to D leading further underground.

Chamber E has a well shaft cut into the floor, as in many early tombs in the valley.

Belzoni and the Discovery

The explorer Giovanni Belzoni found KV17 on 16 October 1817. According to his account, the paint on the walls still looked fresh, and some of the ancient artists' paints and brushes were still lying on the floor. The tomb was later called Belzoni's tomb after him, and it also picked up the names Tomb of Apis and Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois.

The Apis name came from a mummified Apis bull found in a side room off the burial hall. Belzoni's treatment of his discovery was rough by modern standards. He took wax and plaster squeezes of the reliefs that pulled colour from the walls, hacked off large pieces of relief to send to Europe, and cleared rubble that had held back flash floods.

After the rubble went, KV17 flooded, and the reliefs in the entryway were damaged. Visits to KV17 have been restricted at times because of excavation damage and unregulated tourism, but Wikipedia says the tomb was open to visitors as of 2025.

Size and Layout

KV17 is 137.19 metres long, with seventeen chambers and side rooms. For a long time it was thought to be the longest tomb in the valley, and it kept that title until KV5 was explored. The decoration is not concentrated in one show room.

Reliefs survive in all but two of the seventeen chambers and side rooms, and the pillared rooms F, Fa, J, Jb, Jc and Jd all carry carved pillars with well preserved decoration. Corridors B to D are heavily decorated with symbols of the pharaoh, including the goddess Ma'at and a long list of Seti's royal names and epithets. To plan your time around KV17 and the tombs on the standard ticket, the Valley of the Kings map lays out which tomb is where.

The Books on the Walls

The corridors and chambers of KV17 carry scenes from several major funerary compositions. The entry corridors hold symbols of the pharaoh and his titles. Deeper in, the walls show the Litany of Ra, the Book of the Dead, the Imydwat, also called the Amduat, in side chamber Jb, and the Book of the Heavenly Cow.

Chamber F shows Seti with Hathor, Horus and Neith beside intact scenes from the Book of Gates. A back chamber carries a semi-complete Opening of the Mouth ceremony. The ceiling of the vaulted burial chamber shows astronomical motifs with golden stars scattered on a deep blue background.

Because guides are not permitted to lecture inside the tombs, explanations happen outside the entrance, so it is worth reading up on these texts before you go down.

The Sarcophagus, the Mummy and the Tunnel

Seti I's outer sarcophagus is not in Egypt. It has been displayed in Sir John Soane's Museum in London since 1824. Belzoni first offered it to the British Museum, and it was then sold to the architect Sir John Soane, with the sale dated 1817 by some sources and 1824 by others.

The mummy was not in KV17 either when Belzoni arrived. It was found in the royal cache DB320 with 36 other mummies, after being moved in Year 11 of Shoshenq I. Below the spot where the sarcophagus stood, corridor K is a tunnel sloping down into the bedrock. A 1960 attempt cleared nearly 136 metres before it was abandoned for safety because of poor rock.

From 2007 to 2010 the Supreme Council of Antiquities reopened the tunnel with steel supports and a debris railway, and found that it ends abruptly at the bottom of a second staircase, 174 metres in total. If you cannot visit in person, a 3D scan of KV17 has been available since 2002, and the Factum Foundation made full facsimiles of the Hall of Beauties and Pillared Hall J in 2017.

Ticket, Hours and Rules

The figures below come from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and published visitor sources. The Seti I ticket sits outside the standard Valley of the Kings ticket, and the full breakdown of both is on the tickets page.

Booking a Tour That Covers It

No listing on this site names the Seti I ticket as included. The honest route is to buy the EGP 2,000 ticket yourself at the gate and pair it with a guided visit to the valley. The Private Valley of the Kings, 4 Hours tour costs $50 with an Egyptologist guide and hotel transfers, and its listing quotes entrance tickets at EGP 1,900 per person in the special instructions and 750 EGP in the exclusions, so treat those two amounts with care and expect to pay the special ticket on top.

For a wider day, the Private West Bank, Kings and Queens tour costs $89.24 over 8 hours and includes admission to the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, Deir el-Medina, Medinet Habu and Hatshepsut Temple. The listing does not mention Seti I. The full tour-by-tour breakdown is in the Valley of the Kings tours comparison. Guides are not allowed to lecture inside any tomb, so plan questions for outside the entrance.

Wikivoyage suggests pairing Seti I with Horemheb, KV57, as one group of tombs if you are splitting the valley across a day.

The Tram and the Walk to the Door

An electric tram runs from the visitor centre to the tomb area, a ride of about three minutes. The round trip costs 20 EGP per person, a figure listed by Earthtrekkers, We Seek Travel and Wikivoyage. The visitor centre has restrooms, so sort that out before you head down the valley. A tour such as Private Valley of the Kings, 4 Hours covers the transfer and the ticket queue at $50.

Expect a queue of at least 15 to 30 minutes in peak season, per Wikivoyage. Visitors move in single file inside the tombs to keep the crowd flowing, so there is no lingering in front of a scene you like.

Guides Stay Outside

Guides are not permitted inside the tombs, according to Earthtrekkers. We Seek Travel explains the same rule from the other side: guides cannot lecture inside, so explanations happen at the entrance or at rest areas. Read up on the tomb before you enter, because once you pass the door you are on your own with the walls.

Plan on 1 to 2 hours per tomb if you combine the standard tombs with paid ones like KV17, or 5 to 6 hours for a full visit of the valley. For a wider day that fits the valley around other sites, Balloon Ride and Full-Day Sights includes entry fees and the balloon for $160. See the Valley of the Kings tours homepage for the full spread, or start from the guide to planning a Valley of the Kings tours.

The Toll of Excavation

Belzoni took wax and plaster squeezes of the reliefs, which pulled colour from the walls, and he hacked off large pieces to send to Europe. He also cleared rubble that had held back flash floods, after which the tomb flooded and damaged the entryway reliefs. Champollion removed a wall panel measuring 2.26 by 1.05 metres from a corridor in 1828 and 1829.

Pieces taken by Champollion, Rosellini and Lepsius now sit in the Louvre, Florence and Berlin. Excavations in the late 1950s and early 1960s changed the moisture in the rock and caused walls to collapse or crack.

Seeing the Painted Rooms Another Way

Not everything is lost or behind a ticket. A 3D scan of KV17 was made available in 2002, letting viewers walk through the tomb online. In 2017 the Factum Foundation made facsimiles of the Hall of Beauties and Pillared Hall J, two of the most painted rooms.

The tunnel story runs the same way. A first attempt in 1960 cleared nearly 136 metres before poor rock stopped it. From 2007 to 2010 the Supreme Council of Antiquities reopened the corridor with steel supports and a debris railway, and found it ends abruptly at the bottom of a second staircase at 174 metres in total.