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Reading the tombs of the Valley of the Kings
17 October 2026
From about 1500 to 1070 BC, kings of the New Kingdom had the walls of their tombs on Luxor's West Bank written with books that guide the dead through the night: the Amduat, the Book of Gates, the Litany of Ra. Between the gods and the hours of the night, the king's own names stand in cartouches on doorways, pillars and sarcophagi, and those are the place to start.
Only some tombs are open at a time. A few, among them Tutankhamun's and Seti I's, need their own ticket, so check at the gate which ones are on the list that day.
Only Tutankhamun's burial chamber is painted (KV62)
Howard Carter's find of 1922 is a small tomb, and only the burial chamber is painted. On the north wall, Ay, the old courtier who became king after him, stands in a priest's leopard skin and performs the Opening of the Mouth on Tutankhamun, shown as Osiris. Ay's cartouches stand over his head and the young king's over his.
Read Tutankhamun's throne name first: Nebkheperure, nb-ḫprw-rꜥ, "Lord of forms is Ra". The sun disc (N5) sits at the top, the scarab (L1) with three plural strokes below it, and the basket (V30) at the bottom. On the west wall, twelve baboons from the first hour of the Amduat squat in rows. The mummy still lies in the tomb, in a glass case in the antechamber.
Seti I's tomb is carved from end to end (KV17)
Giovanni Belzoni opened this tomb in October 1817. At about 137 metres it was long counted the longest in the valley, and almost every wall is carved in relief and painted. The first corridors hold the Litany of Ra, a roll-call of the sun god's many forms, each drawn and named. Further down come the Amduat and the Book of Gates, and in a back room the Opening of the Mouth.
Seti's throne name, Menmaatre, mn-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, said "men-maat-ra", is short and repeated everywhere: the sun disc, the seated goddess Maat (C10) and the game board (Y5) for mn, "lasting". Once you know it, every scene where the king meets a god becomes easy to label. His alabaster sarcophagus went to Sir John Soane's Museum in London in 1824, and his mummy is in Cairo.
Thutmose III's walls copy an unrolled papyrus (KV34)
A steep stair climbs to this tomb, cut high in a cleft of the cliff. Its burial chamber has rounded corners, the first royal one shaped like a cartouche. Round its walls runs one of the earliest known copies of the Amduat, drawn in black and red with stick-like figures and quick cursive signs, as if a papyrus had been unrolled on the plaster.
The Amduat runs in three bands, and the sun god's boat sails along the middle one through the twelve hours of the night. In the hall before the chamber, hundreds of small gods stand in rows, each with its name. The king's throne name, Menkheperre, mn-ḫpr-rꜥ, "Lasting is the form of Ra", joins the sun disc, the game board, the water ripple (N35) and the scarab.
Nut stretches across Ramesses VI's ceiling (KV9)
This tomb was begun for Ramesses V and taken over by Ramesses VI around 1140 BC. In the burial chamber, look up: the sky goddess Nut stretches twice across the ceiling, back to back, with the Books of the Day and of the Night running along her body. The corridors carry the Book of Gates, the Book of Caverns and, in the chamber, the Book of the Earth.
KV9 has stood open since antiquity. Greek and Roman visitors called it the Tomb of Memnon and left about a thousand graffiti here, mostly in Greek, with some in Latin, Demotic and Coptic.
Seven signs label most of these walls
A handful of signs label most of what you will meet on these walls:
Steady photos make dim walls readable
Light is low and flash is not allowed. Rules on phones and cameras change, so check your ticket before taking pictures. Brace your arms, take several steady photos of one wall and read them later in the shade.
On carved walls, as in Seti I's tomb, raking light along the relief shows edges the paint hides. On the thin ink signs of KV34, hold the camera close or trace a sign over your photo afterwards. In any tomb, find the cartouche nearest the king's figure first, then read the god's name in the column above the god facing him.
Questions
What do the hieroglyphs in the Valley of the Kings say?
Mostly the sun god's journey through the twelve hours of the night, with the gods, gates and dangers he meets. The king hoped to join that journey and rise again with the sun each morning. Captions name every god and repeat the king's names.
Which tomb in the Valley of the Kings has the best hieroglyphs?
Seti I's tomb (KV17) is the most fully decorated, with painted relief on almost every wall. For a reader, KV34 of Thutmose III shows the Amduat complete in a papyrus style, and KV9 has the most striking ceiling.
Is Amenhotep III's tomb open to visitors?
His tomb, WV22, lies in the quieter West Valley. It was reopened in October 2025 after a long Japanese-led restoration, but visits have needed special permission, so ask before you go. His mummy is in Cairo, at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
How many tombs are in the Valley of the Kings?
Around 65 tombs and pits are known, numbered KV1 to KV64 roughly in the order they were recorded. The West Valley tombs share that run as WV22 to WV25. Some are only shafts, and many were never decorated.
Glossary
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- demotic
- A fast joined-up script that grew out of hieratic around 650 BC, used for everyday documents. It is the middle script on the Rosetta Stone.
- Maat
- Truth, justice and the right order of the world, shown as a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head. Kings claimed to uphold it.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- New Kingdom
- Egypt's age of empire, about 1550 to 1069 BC, the time of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.
- papyrus
- A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
- priest
- A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
- relief
- A carving on a flat surface. In raised relief the background is cut away. In sunk relief the figures are cut into the stone.
- sarcophagus
- A large stone coffin. In rich burials it held one or more coffins of wood.
- scarab
- The dung beetle, sign of the rising sun and of the word ḫpr, "to come into being". Carved scarabs were used as seals and amulets.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Valley of the Kings site
- Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) monument
- Tomb of Seti I (KV17) monument
- Tomb of Thutmose III (KV34) monument
- Tomb of Ramesses VI (KV9) monument
- National Museum of Egyptian Civilization museum
Sources
More to read
- Reading the walls of Luxor Temple Luxor Temple hieroglyphs: read the cartouches of Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun, Ramesses II and Alexander the Great, and the signs to learn first.
- Medinet Habu: Ramesses III and the Sea Peoples in his own words Medinet Habu hieroglyphs: Ramesses III's sea battle with the Sea Peoples, his year 8 inscription, the painted second court and the signs to learn first.
- Memphis at Mit Rahina: reading the fallen colossus of Ramesses II Mit Rahina, Egypt: read the cartouches of Ramesses II on his fallen colossus at Memphis, then the sphinx, the garden blocks and the city's own names.