Of the roughly sixty numbered tombs cut into the Valley of the Kings, Egyptologists and guidebooks alike tend to single out one as the most impressive from a purely decorative standpoint: KV17, the tomb of Seti I. It is not the most famous tomb to tourists, a title Tutankhamun's small chamber holds for historical reasons rather than visual ones, but among specialists it is often described as the finest surviving example of New Kingdom tomb decoration.
This guide focuses specifically on what makes KV17 distinct: its scale, its decoration, its unusual discovery story, and the access complications that have surrounded it for decades. For ticket logistics and an overview of the valley as a whole, see our Valley of the Kings guide.
What Makes Seti I's Tomb the Most Elaborately Decorated in the Valley?
KV17 is commonly cited at around 137 meters long, among the longest tombs cut into the valley, descending through a sequence of corridors, pillared halls and side chambers to a vaulted burial chamber deep in the bedrock. Older sources sometimes called it the single longest tomb in the valley outright; that claim has since been complicated by the rediscovery of KV5, a much larger tomb built for the sons of Ramesses II, so it is safer to describe KV17 as among the longest and deepest rather than holding the record outright.
What sets it apart is less the length itself than the completeness of its decoration. Many royal tombs in the valley have fully painted burial chambers but only partially finished corridors, since decoration work sometimes stopped when a pharaoh died before the tomb was complete. KV17 is unusual in having finely carved relief, later painted, running through almost the entire sequence of rooms, which is why Egyptologists consistently rank it among the best-preserved examples of New Kingdom funerary art anywhere in the valley.
Who Discovered KV17, and How Did Giovanni Belzoni Find It?
The Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni, a former circus strongman turned excavator working on behalf of the British consul Henry Salt, discovered the tomb on 16 October 1817. It was one of several major finds Belzoni made in a short, intense period in Egypt, and it remains the discovery most associated with his name.
Belzoni's excavation methods were rough by modern standards; he and his contemporaries worked decades before archaeology existed as a careful scientific discipline, and some of his documentation and removal of artifacts would not be considered acceptable practice today. Even so, his detailed wax-paper impressions and watercolor copies of the tomb's reliefs, made before further damage and the passage of two more centuries, remain a valuable record for Egyptologists studying how the decoration originally looked.
Explore the Valley of the Kings With an Egyptologist
A licensed guide can confirm which tombs, including KV17, are open and ticketed on the day of your visit, and help you choose wisely among them.
Why Is KV17 Also Known as the "Apis Tomb" or "Belzoni's Tomb"?
Early visitors and excavators sometimes referred to KV17 as the Apis Tomb, a nickname that stuck after a mummified bull was found inside one of its side chambers. The bull was associated, at least by early interpreters, with the Apis cult, the sacred bull worship centered at Memphis, though later Egyptological opinion on exactly how that find relates to Seti I's own burial has varied, and it should be treated as an interesting detail of the tomb's history rather than a settled fact about its original purpose.
The alternative nickname, Belzoni's Tomb, is more straightforward: nineteenth-century European visitors frequently named tombs after their discoverer rather than their royal occupant, a convention that has mostly faded as Egyptology has grown more rigorous, but which still surfaces in older travel accounts and museum labels referencing KV17.
What Is Notable About the Tomb's Vaulted Ceiling and Astronomical Decoration?
The burial chamber is roofed with a vaulted stone ceiling, a construction technique Egyptologists consider unusual for its period, and the ceiling carries painted astronomical decoration depicting constellations and the night sky, a motif found in a number of New Kingdom royal tombs that cast the king's afterlife journey in cosmic terms. The exact iconographic details are still studied and debated by specialists, so travelers should treat descriptions of "the" astronomical ceiling as a general feature of this style of royal burial chamber rather than a single fixed, universally agreed-upon design.
Combined with the raised relief carving elsewhere in the tomb, the burial chamber decoration is often cited as the high point of the whole visit, on the occasions when the tomb is open and a visitor can reach it. It is also the part of the tomb most sensitive to humidity and foot traffic, which is part of why access to KV17 has been managed more cautiously than most other tombs in the valley.
Where Is Seti I's Sarcophagus Today, and Why Isn't It in the Tomb?
Belzoni removed Seti I's finely carved calcite sarcophagus from the tomb not long after its discovery. It eventually passed into the collection of the English architect Sir John Soane, and today it remains on display at Sir John Soane's Museum in London rather than in Egypt, one of a number of significant ancient Egyptian artifacts that left the country during the nineteenth-century excavation era.
Visitors who tour the empty burial chamber today are therefore seeing the space where the sarcophagus once stood rather than the object itself, a detail worth knowing in advance so the chamber's current bare state does not come as a surprise after reading about its elaborate decoration.
Why Does KV17 Often Carry Restricted or Extra-Fee Access, and How Should You Plan Around It?
Unlike the standard Valley of the Kings ticket, which covers entry to any three tombs from the day's open list, KV17 has at various times been sold only as a separate, significantly higher-priced add-on ticket, reported in recent years at roughly EGP 1,800 to 2,000, and it has also been closed to the public entirely for extended periods for conservation and structural reasons, including concerns about the stability of its deeper passages. Both the price and the open-or-closed status can and do change without much notice.
Because of this, the single most useful piece of planning advice is simply not to assume KV17 will be available or affordable on the day. Confirm its current status, ticket requirements and price at the official ticket office or through the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities' site before building a visit around it, and have a backup tomb in mind from the standard three-tomb ticket. For how KV17 fits into a broader day at the valley, including tomb access rotation and getting there, see our Valley of the Kings guide; for how it compares to the valley's other famous, separately ticketed tomb, see our Tutankhamun's tomb guide. Many visitors pair a West Bank morning covering the valley with an afternoon at the Temple of Hatshepsut.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the tomb of Seti I open to visitors right now?
It varies. KV17 has been closed for conservation at various times and, when open, has often required a separate ticket beyond the standard three-tomb entry. Confirm current access at the ticket office or official ministry site before your visit.
Why is KV17 considered the most elaborately decorated tomb in the valley?
Unlike many royal tombs where decoration is complete only in the burial chamber, KV17 has finely carved, painted relief running through nearly its entire length, a completeness Egyptologists rarely find elsewhere in the valley.
Who found Seti I's tomb, and when?
The Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni discovered it on 16 October 1817, one of several major finds he made in Egypt during that period.
Is Seti I's sarcophagus inside the tomb?
No. Belzoni removed it shortly after discovery, and it now sits at Sir John Soane's Museum in London; the burial chamber visitors see today is empty of the sarcophagus itself.
Is KV17 the same as the Valley of the Kings in general?
No, KV17 is one specific tomb within the Valley of the Kings, which holds roughly sixty numbered tombs in total. See our Valley of the Kings guide for the site as a whole.
