Valley of the Kings: Which Tombs Are Worth Your Ticket

What does the standard ticket cover?

The general entry ticket is sold at the visitor centre by the car park. It admits you to the site and to three tombs of your choice from those open that day, which usually means around eight to ten. The selection rotates for conservation, so nobody can promise you a particular tomb in advance. A small electric train runs the last stretch to the entrance; walking it takes about ten minutes in full sun.

Which tombs open on the day is posted at the ticket office. Ramesses IV (KV2), Ramesses IX (KV6), Merenptah (KV8) and Ramesses III (KV11) are among the ones most often available. Ramesses III is the pick if it is open: a long descending corridor with side chambers of painted scenes, including the two blind harpers that gave it its old name, the Tomb of the Harpers.

Which tombs need a separate ticket?

Three of the famous ones sit outside the general ticket. Tutankhamun (KV62), Seti I (KV17) and Ramesses V/VI (KV9) each need their own ticket, bought at the same office. Nefertari is not here at all: her tomb is in the Valley of the Queens, a separate site about ten minutes away by car, with its own entry fee and its own extra ticket.

Prices for these change often, so treat any figure you read online as out of date and check at the window. Of the three, Ramesses V/VI gives the most for the money: a wide, bright tomb with an astronomical ceiling showing the sky goddess Nut. Seti I is the longest and deepest in the valley and the finest, and priced accordingly. Tutankhamun is small, with only the burial chamber painted; the mummy is there, the treasures are in Cairo, and many visitors come out feeling short-changed.

Nefertari's tomb is the one genuine exception to our usual advice about paid extras. The colour is better preserved than anything else on the west bank, and the visit is time-limited, in practice about ten minutes. It is expensive and it is short. If painted decoration is the reason you came to Luxor, it is worth the money; if you are ticking off sites, it is not.

Can you take photographs inside the tombs?

Yes, in most tombs, with a photography ticket bought at the entrance. The rules on what needs a ticket have changed more than once, so ask at the window whether your phone is covered or only cameras. No flash, no tripods, and nothing resting on the walls or the glass. Seti I, Tutankhamun and Nefertari are handled separately and have at times banned photography outright or charged their own permit.

Tomb guards will sometimes lift a rope, point a torch at a detail, or offer to take your picture in a spot you are not meant to stand in. They expect a tip for it. You are free to say no, politely and firmly, and nothing bad happens. If you accept, small notes are the norm; carry some.

Why does going early matter so much?

Heat and coaches. The site opens early, around 6am, and the first tour groups arrive from roughly 8. The tombs are cut into rock with no airflow. Inside, they are hotter and closer than the open valley, which itself reaches around 40C on a summer afternoon. A corridor that is pleasant at 6.30 is unpleasant by 10.

Walk past the first tombs and start at the far end of the valley, then work back. Everyone else does the opposite, so you get the deep tombs to yourself for half an hour. Three tombs plus one paid extra takes about two and a half hours. Most people pair the morning with Hatshepsut's temple and either Medinet Habu or the Ramesseum, and are back for lunch.

Is a guide worth paying for in the Valley of the Kings?

Guides are not allowed to give commentary inside the tombs. They brief you outside, at the shaded panels near the entrance, then you go in alone. That surprises people who have paid for one. It still helps: a good Egyptologist guide will tell you what to look for in each corridor and steer you away from the tombs that are not worth your three choices that day.

What a guide cannot do is get you in faster or cheaper. Tickets are fixed price at the window, and there is no queue-jumping. If you are on a trip we arrange, the guide and the west bank driver are booked for you, and the tickets are bought on the morning by whoever is with you.