The tomb of Seti I, also known by its
tomb number, KV17, is the
tomb
A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...
of
Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...
Seti I
Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek language, Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom period, ruling or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and th ...
of the
Nineteenth Dynasty
The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XIX), also known as the Ramessid dynasty, is classified as the second Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1292 BC to 1189 BC. The 19th Dynasty and the 20th Dynasty fu ...
. Located in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
's
Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and power ...
, It is also known by the names "Belzoni's tomb", "the Tomb of Apis", and "the Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois". It is one of the most decorated tombs in the valley, and is one of the largest and deepest tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
It was uncovered by Italian archaeologist and explorer
Giovanni Belzoni
Giovanni Battista Belzoni (; 5 November 1778 – 3 December 1823), sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. He is known for his removal to England of the seven-tonn ...
on 16 October 1817.
Design

Previously considered the longest tomb in the valley until the discovery of the
Tomb of the Sons of Ramesses II, at 137.19 meters (450.10 feet), it contains well preserved reliefs in all but two of its seventeen chambers and side rooms.
The design of the tomb follows a "
joggled axis" style of architecture; the tomb entry's descending line is interrupted by a "wiggle" that changes to a sharper angle of descent when entering the tomb following the first chamber. The entry to the tomb consists of four hallways (A–D), each leading further underground; they have a number of murals depicting traditional religious imagery along with illustrations of Seti I before
Ra. Deeper into the tomb, rooms F, Fa, J, Jb, Jc and Jd have intricately carved support pillars with well preserved decorations. It is also one of the first discovered tombs to have a vaulted burial chamber,
along with remaining examples of construction, such as plastered over postholes where wooden beams would have been.
In common with many early tombs in the valley, chamber E has a well shaft cut into the floor.
A tunnel known as corridor K slopes downward from beneath the location where the sarcophagus stood in the burial chamber. In 1960, the first attempt at excavation resulted in the partial clearance of nearly of the tunnel. Due to the poor quality of the rock through which the tunnel was cut, this excavation was abandoned for safety reasons. From 2007 to 2010, the
Supreme Council of Antiquities
The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA; ) was established in 1994, responsible for the conservation, protection, and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt. From 1994 to 2011, the SCA was a department of the Egyptia ...
undertook a second excavation, installing steel supports and a railway system for removing debris. Two staircases were uncovered, with the tunnel ending abruptly at the bottom of the second. The total length of the tunnel is .
Decoration
The entry corridors (Corridors B–D) are heavily decorated with symbols of the Pharaoh, like those of
Ma'at
Maat or Maʽat (Egyptian: ''mꜣꜥt'' /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regula ...
and a list of Set's royal names and epithets.
One of the back chambers is decorated with the
Opening of the mouth ceremony
The opening of the mouth ceremony (or ritual) was an ancient Egyptian ritual described in funerary texts such as the Pyramid Texts. From the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom to the Roman Egypt, Roman Period, there is ample evidence of this cerem ...
, which shows the Egyptian belief that a magic religious ceremony would open the lungs and throat of the mummy, allowing them to breathe in the afterlife. Considered a very important religious ceremony, a semi-complete depiction of this ritual provides an in-depth view of the pantheon of practices undertaken to ensure safe passage into the afterlife. Further into the tomb are numerous depictions of King Seti with numerous Gods. Chamber F depicts images of Seti with
Hathor
Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god R ...
,
Horus
Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...
and
Neith
Neith (, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form , also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an ancient Egyptian deity, possibly of Ancient Libya, Libyan origin. She was connected with warfare, as indicated by her emblem of two crossed b ...
,
along with intact mural examples of the
Book of Gates
The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. The ''Book of Gates'' is long and detailed, consisting of one hundred scenes. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world journeying wi ...
.The tomb is covered floor to ceiling by detailed murals and reliefs. The ceiling of the vaulted burial chamber depicts a series of astronomical motifs, with golden stars on a deep blue background. Other decorations are religious in nature, including depictions of the
Litany of Ra, the
Book of The Dead
The ''Book of the Dead'' is the name given to an Ancient Egyptian funerary texts, ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC ...
,
the Imydwat, the
Book of The Heavenly Cow and depictions of Seti with various deities. There are also depictions of the King alone, standing in the pillars of the room.
Each room is heavily decorated, both wall and ceiling, along with numerous columns and floor skirting. Much of the floor skirting is damaged, due to both the ravages of time and the damage due to excavation.
Parts of the tomb ceilings have been painted with gold stars on a deep blue sky, a common motif in temples and tombs in Egypt. Numerous rooms in Seti's tomb use the motif, including rooms such as side chamber Jb with the
Imydwat. There are many richly decorated rooms, with their own general themes.
Archaeology and conservation
The tomb was uncovered by Italian explorer and early
Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...
Giovanni Belzoni
Giovanni Battista Belzoni (; 5 November 1778 – 3 December 1823), sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. He is known for his removal to England of the seven-tonn ...
on 16 October 1817. Upon entering the tomb, Belzoni found the wall paintings in excellent condition with the paint on the walls still looking fresh, and some of the artists' paints and brushes still on the floor.
The tomb became known as the "Apis tomb" upon the discovery of a mummified
Apis Bull
In ancient Egyptian religion, Apis or Hapis, alternatively spelled Hapi-ankh, was a sacred bull or multiple sacred bulls worshiped in the Memphis region, identified as the son of Hathor, a primary deity in the pantheon of ancient Egypt. Initi ...
found in a side room off the burial hall when Belzoni uncovered the tomb.
The body identified as Seti's
mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
was not found in his coffin upon Belzoni's discovery of the tomb, but rather in the royal cache
DB320
The Royal Cache, technically known as TT320 (previously referred to as DB320), is an Ancient Egyptian Hypogeum, tomb located next to Deir el-Bahari, in the Theban Necropolis, opposite the modern city of Luxor.
It contains an extraordinary collect ...
amongst 36 other mummies. His coffin (perhaps the inner or secondary coffin) was heavily damaged, as was his mummy. It has been postulated that priests of numerous dynasties attempted restorations of both his tomb and his coffin, but his mummy was finally moved in the Year 11 of
Shoshenq I
Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I (Egyptian ''ššnq''; reigned )—also known as Shashank or Sheshonk or Sheshonq Ifor discussion of the spelling, see Shoshenq—was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egy ...
to cache DB320. The
outer coffin was going to be sold by Belzoni to the British Museum in 1817, but it was sold for US$2000 to architect
Sir John Soane
Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the Ro ...
later that year, and now rests in the
Sir John Soane's Museum
Sir John Soane's Museum is a Historic house museum, house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, London, which was formerly the home of Neoclassical architecture, neo-classical architect John Soane. It holds many drawings and ...
.
Much of the structural damage to the tomb before the 1950s and 1960s was caused by Belzoni. Belzoni, in an effort to bring back pieces of Egyptian art, damaged much of the work within the tomb. He made "squeezes", a form of copying artwork by pressing wet wax, plaster and sometimes paper against the reliefs; when they dried, the color was pulled away, and a negative impression was made of the carvings, but it also damaged many of the reliefs and carvings. Beyond the use of "squeezes", Belzoni also hacked off large pieces of relief to send back to Europe, along with clearing rubble that held back flash floodwaters; the tomb subsequently flooded, damaging large portions of the structure and damaged the reliefs in the entryway.
The outer layer of the
sarcophagus of Seti I
The sarcophagus of Seti I is a life-size sarcophagus of the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Seti I that was discovered in 1817 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni in tomb KV17 in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Seti I is believed to have died in 1279 ...
, removed on behalf of the British consul
Henry Salt, is located in the
Sir John Soane
Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the Ro ...
's
Museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
since 1824.
Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion (), also known as Champollion ''le jeune'' ('the Younger'; 23 December 1790 – 4 March 1832), was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure ...
, translator of the
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts ...
, removed a wall panel of 2.26 x 1.05 m (7.41 x 3.44 ft) in a corridor with mirror-image scenes during his 1828–29 expedition. Other elements were removed by his companion
Rossellini or by
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist.
He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...
in the German expedition of 1845. The scenes are now in the collections of the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, the
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
, and the
Neues Museum
The Neues Museum (, ''New Museum'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Built from 1843 to 1855 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles, ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
A number of walls in the tomb have collapsed or cracked due to excavations in the late 1950s and early 1960s causing significant changes in the moisture levels in the surrounding rocks.
There have been a number of recent 21st century attempts at preservation, both through image-mapping projects like the Theban Mapping Project and the Maidan Project, and through intense laser scanning of the reliefs on the walls of the tomb by the Factum Foundation leading to many of the images within the tomb being available to the public. A 3-D scan of the temple was made available in 2002, allowing viewers to 'walk' through the tomb through a series of 3D photos.
Facsimiles of two rooms from the tomb, the Hall of Beauties and Pillared Hall J, were made by the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation in 2017.
Tourism
Due to excavation and the damages of improperly regulated tourism, visits have historically been restricted at times, as archaeology efforts in the 1950s and 1960s have made parts of the tomb unstable. However, as of 2025, the Tomb was open for visits.
Gallery
File:Pharaoh Seti I before Osiris, wall painting from the Tomb of Seti I at the Valley of the Kings, Western Thebes, Egypt. Neues Museum.jpg, Pharaoh Seti I before Osiris, wall painting from KV17, Hall J, Pillar B, side a. Neues Museum
File:Pharaoh Seti I, detail of a wall painting from the Tomb of Seti I at the Valley of the Kings, Western Thebes, Egypt. Neues Museum.jpg, Pharaoh Seti I, detail of a wall painting from the Tomb of Seti I at the Valley of the Kings. Neues Museum
File:Birth and Throne cartouches of pharaoh Seti I, from KV17 at the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Neues Museum.jpg, Birth and throne cartouches of pharaoh Seti I, from KV17. Neues Museum
File:Ceiling of Chamber I in the Tomb Of Seti I.jpg, Image depicting the ceiling of Chamber I in the Tomb Of Seti I, Theban Mapping Project.
File:StarsSeti1.jpg, Depiction of circumpolar stars and constellations on the roof of the tomb in room J. Theban Mapping Project.
File:Tomb With Graffiti.jpg, Section of tomb showing wear and tear of graffiti, along with depiction of Seti I with Hathor, Horus, Isis, and Anubis. Theban Mapping Project.
File:AhmudatSeti.jpg, Depiction of abbreviated book of hours, along with a winged Isis. Theban Mapping Project.
References
* Reeves, N. & Wilkinson, R. H.
The Complete Valley of the Kings, 1996, Thames and Hudson, London.
* Siliotti, A.,
Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples 1996, A.A. Gaddis, Cairo.
* Belzoni, Giovanni,
Narratives of the operations and recent discoveries in Egypt and Nubia:... 1820
External links
Theban Mapping Project: KV17includes description, images, and plans of the tomb.
360° Photosphere virtual visit of Seti I Tomb in the Kings' Valley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kv17
1817 archaeological discoveries
Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century BC
Valley of the Kings
Seti I