Valley of the Kings

To cross from the east bank to the west bank of the Nile at Luxor is still, in a quiet way, to cross from the world of the living to the world of the dead. The ancient Egyptians understood the geography in precisely these terms: the sun rose on the east bank, where the temples of Karnak and Luxor faced the river and welcomed the living pharaoh; the sun set on the west bank, where the funerary monuments of the New Kingdom queens and kings lay hidden in a natural amphitheatre beneath the pyramidal mountain of Al-Qurn. The Valley of the Kings — the Wadi Biban el-Muluk, or Gates of the Kings — is the most important royal necropolis of the ancient world. It held, for the five centuries between about 1550 and 1069 before the Christian era, the tombs of the pharaohs of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties.

I. Sixty-three tombs, three open

Sixty-three tombs have been discovered in the valley, of which approximately twenty are sufficiently stable to open to visitors. On any given day, the Supreme Council of Antiquities rotates three tombs into open-access status, with the choice made by a combination of conservation load, tomb-climate recovery, and seasonal visitor numbers. The pass covers admission to those three rotating tombs. Three further tombs — Tutankhamun (KV62), Seti I (KV17), and Ramesses VI (KV9) — carry a supplementary ticket that the traveller purchases at a small kiosk near the entrance, at a price set by the SCA and not marked up by our office. The tomb of Seti I, the most extensively decorated burial in the valley, is in our view worth every piastre.

II. The tomb of Tutankhamun

The most famous tomb in the valley is, by a substantial margin, the smallest. Tutankhamun's burial — discovered by Howard Carter on 4 November 1922 — consists of a short descending passage, an antechamber, an annex, and a single painted burial chamber approximately four by six metres. The tomb was always modest; the boy king died at nineteen, unprepared for, and the tomb he received was a hastily adapted private burial. Its significance is the survival of its contents, not the grandeur of its architecture. The chamber is still occupied by the outer quartzite sarcophagus and the yellow-varnished mummy of the king himself, preserved in a climate-controlled glass vitrine. The wall paintings — twelve baboons on the western wall, the king's funeral procession on the northern — are original and vivid. Photography is not permitted inside KV62, by separate ruling of the SCA; the pass-holder may photograph the approach and the steps, but not the painted interior.

III. The tomb of Seti I

If KV62 is the valley's celebrity, KV17 is its masterpiece. The burial of Seti I (1290–1279 before the Christian era) is the longest and most lavishly decorated tomb in the entire necropolis, descending one hundred and thirty-seven metres into the rock over seven chambers and a long corridor. Every wall is painted; every ceiling is an astronomical chart; the burial chamber, with its vaulted ceiling depicting the constellations of the northern sky, is among the finest surviving pieces of Egyptian art anywhere. The tomb was discovered, empty of its sarcophagus, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in 1817 — the sarcophagus was sold to Sir John Soane and may still be seen in London — but the paintings were intact. Closed to visitors for much of the twentieth century, the tomb reopened to limited access in 2016 after a long conservation campaign, and the supplementary ticket is the most rewarding of the three.

IV. Photography with the pass

A Ministry decision of 2019 permits non-flash personal photography throughout the valley, including inside the tombs (with the single exception of KV62 noted above). The pass embeds the photography permit in the credential QR, and the valley's gate stewards recognise the pass automatically. Tripods remain forbidden, as do commercial-scale lighting rigs; a simple handheld camera or phone is the appropriate tool. Flash is universally prohibited, because the ultraviolet component of a xenon flash accelerates the fading of the tomb pigments. We ask all pass-holders to respect this rule strictly; the guardians may be lenient, but the paint is less forgiving.

V. Strategy for the day

Arrive early. The valley opens at six, and the first hour — before the arrival of the Nile cruise groups, before the sun reaches the valley floor — is the only time the temperature is reliably below thirty degrees. Two hours is the typical visit; three hours is ideal if the pass-holder has purchased a supplementary tomb. Carry two litres of water per person. Wear a wide-brimmed hat. The electric buggy that ferries visitors from the ticket office to the tombs is included in the admission; there is no need to walk the dusty ten-minute approach, though some prefer to.

VI. After the valley

The pass-holder's time on the west bank is well continued at the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahri) or at the Ramesseum, both a short drive from the valley and both extraordinary in their own right. A long lunch at one of the small west-bank restaurants — the Nour el-Gourna, with its terrace overlooking the Colossi of Memnon, is a favourite of our office — closes the day. Return by motor-launch to the east bank in the late afternoon, watching the western cliffs turn the colour of fresh-cut ochre as the sun sets behind them. That evening, a visit to Luxor Museum will consolidate the day in a gallery of the very statues and artefacts that once filled the tombs.