Tomb of Seti I (KV17)

The largest and most elaborately decorated tomb in the Valley of the Kings, with 136 metres of painted corridors

The Tomb of Seti I (KV17) is the longest and most elaborately painted tomb in the Valley of the Kings, descending 136 metres into the limestone cliffs through a series of decorated corridors and chambers. The paintings cover virtually every surface and represent every major text of the Egyptian royal funerary tradition: the Book of the Gates, the Book of Caverns, the Litany of Ra, and the Amduat. The colours are extraordinary — after 3,200 years they retain a vividness that makes many tourist photos look like they have been digitally enhanced.

The tomb was closed for much of the late 20th century due to deterioration and the complexity of restoration work. It reopened with a separate high-price ticket designed to limit visitor numbers. The cost is significant, but this is the most impressive individual tomb in Egypt, far outshining even the famous tomb of Tutankhamun. If you are going to pay extra for one tomb, make it this one rather than Nefertari's — both are spectacular, but Seti's is on a different scale of ambition.

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A story
Giovanni Belzoni, the Italian adventurer and showman who discovered the tomb in 1817, was so overwhelmed that he hosted a dinner party inside it shortly after opening it, inviting the leading Egyptologists of the day to dine among the paintings. He later made a full-scale plaster cast of the sarcophagus chamber and exhibited it in London, charging admission. The actual alabaster sarcophagus, bought by Sir John Soane before Belzoni could sell it to the British Museum, is now in Sir John Soane's Museum in London.

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