Seti I: the ticket with no student rate

The number that surprises people

EGP 2,000 is the largest single figure anyone meets on the West Bank, and it arrives without warning: the general ticket is EGP 750, Ramses V and VI is EGP 220, Tutankhamun is EGP 700, and then this. It is nearly three times the general ticket for one tomb. About nine times the price of KV9. It appears on the Ministry’s printed price list dated 5 November 2024 and in seven independent guides, so it is not a mistake and it is not a hustle at the window.

The second surprise is the student column. Every other ticket in the valley halves for students — EGP 375 general entry, EGP 350 for Tutankhamun, EGP 110 for Ramses V and VI. Seti I does not. A student pays EGP 2,000. If you are travelling on a student budget and building the day around the half-price rates, this is the one line that will not cooperate. The whole grid is on the ticket price list.

What the EGP 2,000 is actually for

Unusually for this site, we have real scholarly detail here, so here it is rather than an adjective.

• 137.19 m long, with seven corridors and ten chambers. That is a long walk underground by the standards of the tombs on the general ticket, most of which you are through in a few minutes.
• One of the most completely decorated tombs in the valley, and decorated in painted raised relief rather than paint on flat plaster. The surface is carved and then painted, which is a different thing to look at and a far more expensive thing to have made.
• The burial chamber has a vaulted astronomical ceiling: golden stars on deep blue, with the circumpolar constellations. Both Wikipedia and the Theban Mapping Project describe it, which is a higher bar than most tomb detail on the internet clears.

One thing that figure is not: a depth. 137.19 m is how long the tomb is, and no source we checked publishes how far below the surface it reaches. We have the length and we do not have the depth, so this page gives you the one and not the other.

EGP 2,000 against EGP 220: the comparison that matters

The honest way to price this tomb is against the other paid one nobody talks about. Ramses V and VI, KV9, costs EGP 220 — EGP 110 for a student. Two independent sources call it the best value in the valley. Here is what it has:

Nine KV9 tickets cost less than one KV17 ticket. That is not an argument that Seti I is overpriced — a tomb with seven corridors and ten chambers of raised relief is a different object from anything else on the site, and somebody has to pay for keeping it open. It is an argument that you should know what the alternative is before you spend the EGP 2,000, and most people are never told there is one.

The third paid tomb sits between them. Tutankhamun’s tomb is EGP 700, and it is a different kind of decision again: what is verified there is the mummy, on display in the tomb, rather than any description of the decoration, where for these two the sources give a great deal.

Before you go and pay it

• Card only. EGP 2,000 is a lot to discover you cannot pay in cash for — entry tickets here have been card-only since June 2023. See paying by card.
• Allow the time. Two hours covers three tombs comfortably; three to four hours once the paid tombs are in, and none of those figures includes the queue, the tram or the drive. How much time you need has the detail.
• Go early. Guides and experienced visitors consistently say the crowds land between 10 am and 2 pm, and Luxor’s mean daily maximum is 41.4 °C in July. The gate opens at 6:00 AM — when to come.
• The Premium Luxor Pass is the tier that adds Seti I. Six sources agree on that much, which makes it the single strongest claim about the pass. Whether the pass breaks even is a separate question, on the Luxor Pass page.

The newest official price document that exists is the Ministry’s printed list dated 5 November 2024. No 2025 or 2026 replacement could be found, so everything here is a current published rate rather than a rate anybody guarantees for the day you arrive.

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