Blog Culture & sights

2026-01-125 min readcheaphotels

A ruthless ranking of 7 tombs worth your ticket, with which extras to pay for and which to skip.

1. Seti I (KV17) — the one you upgrade for

The standard 3-tomb ticket won’t get you in here. Seti I costs a separate 1,400 EGP add-on and it is the only tomb in the valley where I’d tell a first-time visitor to pay it without hesitation. The corridors run deeper than any other royal tomb, the astronomical ceiling in the burial chamber still holds its cobalt blue, and the raised relief in the upper passages is cut so cleanly you can read individual feather barbs on the vulture goddesses. Nothing else in Egypt looks like this at this scale.

The catch: the ticket queue at the visitor centre is separate, and the guards inside enforce a 10-minute cap when it's busy. Go at opening (6am November to March, 6:30am in shoulder season) and you’ll get closer to 20 minutes alone with the burial chamber. Skip it only if you’re on a strict budget day and have already committed to Nefertari across the valley.

2. Ramesses VI (KV9) — the ceiling everyone forgets to look at

KV9 is not on the standard ticket either — it's a 180 EGP add-on — but it's the best value single upgrade in the valley. The tomb is wide, well-lit, and the double ceiling of the Book of the Day and Book of the Night runs the full length of the burial chamber. Nut arches across it twice, swallowing and birthing the sun, and the yellow ground of the painting has held better than almost anywhere else on the West Bank.

Practically, KV9 sits right next to Tutankhamun, which is convenient because Tut is a 15-minute disappointment and KV9 is what you should actually spend that hour on. It's also one of the few tombs deep and cool enough to feel bearable in April when surface temperatures on the path hit 38°C. Book this before the standard three, honestly.

3. Ramesses III (KV11) — the one on the standard ticket to prioritise

The standard entry ticket lets you pick any three of the roughly 8-10 tombs open on a given day. Ramesses III is always the first one I use a punch on. The side chambers off the entrance corridor hold scenes you don’t see elsewhere — the two blind harpists, foreign tribute bearers, bakers at ovens — and the colour on the ceiling stars survives beautifully in the middle sections. It's long, it's varied, and it rewards a slow walk.

Guards here are more relaxed about photography than at Seti I or Nefertari, as long as you’ve paid the 300 EGP camera pass at the ticket office. Don’t try to sneak it — they check screens on the way out and confiscations do happen. Budget 25-30 minutes inside; this is a tomb that punishes rushing.

4. Merenptah (KV8) — the granite sarcophagus lid

Merenptah gets skipped because Ramesses II's son doesn’t have the marketing that his father does, and that works in your favour. The tomb is often empty even at 9am in February. The descent is steep and long — about 80 metres in — and the burial chamber holds the enormous pink granite sarcophagus lid carved with the king's figure in high relief. Standing next to it, you understand the scale of royal burial in a way photos never convey.

Wall decoration is patchier than in KV11 or KV9 — a lot was left unfinished or damaged in antiquity — but the architecture alone justifies the visit. Use your second standard punch here. Wear proper shoes; the ramp down is polished stone and slick after guards hose it in summer. Skip if you have knee issues, because the climb back is genuinely tiring.

5. Tuthmosis III (KV34) — the odd one out

KV34 is worth your third punch precisely because it doesn’t look like the others. It's older — 18th Dynasty rather than 19th or 20th — and the burial chamber walls are painted in a deliberately archaic stick-figure style, mimicking papyrus rather than the sculptural relief you see in the Ramesside tombs. The whole Amduat is laid out like an unrolled scroll, complete with the vertical dividers.

Getting to it is half the experience. The tomb sits high in a cleft at the far end of the valley, reached by a metal staircase bolted to the cliff. In summer, do this before 8am or forget it — the metal handrails hit skin-burning temperatures by 10. The chamber itself is oval, which is unique among royal tombs, and the sense of intruding somewhere unfinished sticks with you.

6. Tutankhamun (KV62) — worth it only for the mummy

I’m ranking it because you’ll ask. KV62 costs 360 EGP on top of standard entry, the tomb itself is small and largely undecorated (Tut died young and the burial was rushed), and the wall paintings that do exist are limited to the burial chamber. What you’re paying for is standing three feet from the actual mummy of Tutankhamun, displayed in a climate-controlled case where the sarcophagus sits.

That's either worth 360 EGP to you or it isn’t. For most first-timers with Egypt-obsessed kids, it is. For anyone who has done their reading and wants painted walls, skip it and put that money toward Seti I. The queue moves fast because there's genuinely not much to see, so don’t budget more than 15 minutes total including the walk down and back.

7. Ramesses IX (KV6) — the quick win near the entrance

KV6 sits right by the valley entrance, which means most tour groups pile in first thing and then it empties out by 10am. Come back to it on your way out and you’ll have a beautifully decorated, mid-length tomb largely to yourself. The astronomical ceiling in the burial chamber and the solar barque scenes on the side walls are in genuinely good condition, and the walk in is short enough that you can add it without exhausting the group.

This is the tomb I use as a closer — third punch on the standard ticket if I’ve already done KV11 and KV8, or a bonus if I’ve upgraded elsewhere and kept a punch spare. Don’t lead your day here; the impact is smaller after Seti I or KV9. But as a final impression before the shuttle back to the visitor centre, it lands well.

Book while you read Median night$50 Cheapest area$18 Hotels tracked1 Find a hotel

Before you book

The questions people ask about West Bank, answered with this month’s numbers.