# Is Tutankhamun’s Tomb Right for Your Visit? Source: https://luxor101.com/journal/is-tutankhamuns-tomb-worth-the-extra-ticket Language: en Comparison Reading time 3 min # Is Tutankhamun’s Tomb Right for Your Visit? Choose KV62 if seeing Tutankhamun’s burial setting matters to you. It is small and its wall decoration is limited; the famous portable treasures are a separate museum visit. Check current admission before paying for an extra ticket. **How this piece was written.** Current opening status, ticket arrangements and photography rules are unverified. Confirm them with the official ticket office or antiquities authority before your visit. Read this note for the sources and limits of the account. Tutankhamun’s tomb is most rewarding when you arrive with a clear idea of what it offers. KV62 is compact compared with many royal tombs, and only its burial chamber carries painted decoration. Its importance lies especially in the burial equipment it preserved and the history of its discovery. The excavation team led by Howard Carter uncovered the entrance in November 1922; the burial chamber was opened in 1923. Egyptian workers and specialists were part of the long undertaking to excavate, record and conserve the find. The tomb had been entered in antiquity, yet retained an exceptional assemblage. Do not expect the gold mask or a room full of burial treasures. The stone sarcophagus is part of the tomb’s setting, but the outer gilded wooden coffin was transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum in July 2019. Current object displays and access arrangements need their own check. The painted chamber deserves attention in its own right. On the north wall, Ay performs the Opening of the Mouth ritual for Tutankhamun. Other scenes connect the dead king with divine protection and renewal. The dark spots visible on painted surfaces were investigated by conservators and identified as old microbial traces, not active growth. The suggestion of damp plaster at burial is an explanation rather than a directly documented moment. Choose this tomb if that history interests you. If your priority is extensive decoration, compare it with other open tombs before deciding. Its smaller scale does not make it automatically accessible: steps, thresholds, confined space and crowding still matter. Confirm whether it is open, what ticket is required and which photography rules apply. No current price or admission status is verified here. The decision is personal, and it can be made without declaring one tomb essential for everyone. ## What would make the visit worthwhile for you? If your interest is the discovery and the burial’s original setting, KV62 adds something a museum display cannot. If your main interest is long corridors covered in funerary scenes, compare other tombs first. If you want the portable treasures, establish their current museum locations separately. Confirm opening, ticket inclusion and the physical route only after deciding which experience you want. > The discovery story and the painted room offer different reasons to visit. Approximate reading time, calculated from the English text at 200 words per minute. Arabic reading time may differ. Look for this ## At Valley of the Kings, look for this. Explore related details in the site’s field guide. Current access still needs checking. 1. 1 ### The peak that is shaped like a pyramid Look up and south-west from the valley floor, above the tomb entrances Al-Qurn, “the horn”: a natural limestone peak that rises over the valley in a near-perfect pyramid, and is visible from almost everywhere in it. Interpretation Fact — the peak and its shape, and that it dominates the valley. Interpretation — that the shape influenced the choice of burial ground. The kings gave up building pyramids and then had themselves buried underneath one that was already there. Whether that was the reason for choosing this valley cannot be shown, but it is the first thing anyone standing here notices. 2. 2 ### Walls where the work stopped mid-scene In several tombs, in the chambers nearest the burial chamber Look for a wall carrying red grid lines and a draughtsman’s outline with no colour in it, or smooth plaster laid ready and never carved. Sometimes the finished decoration and the bare outline meet in the middle of the same figure. Unfinished surfaces can reveal stages of cutting, plastering, drawing and carving. A king’s death could limit the time available, but the reason a particular section was left unfinished needs evidence specific to that tomb. 3. 3 ### These walls carry books, not biographies The corridor walls of any decorated royal tomb Registers of dense text with small figures worked into them — serpents, barques (a ceremonial boat carrying a sacred image), gateways, ram-headed and mummiform forms of the sun — and almost nothing of banquets, hunting, farming or family. Funerary compositions connect the king with divine protection and renewal. Their selection differs between tombs, and private tombs also use religious imagery alongside scenes of work and family. 4. 4 ### Graffiti left by ancient visitors The entrance corridors of the tombs that stood open in antiquity — most of all KV9 Names, dates and short lines scratched into the plaster and the stone in Greek, Latin and Coptic, sometimes in careful lettering, sometimes not. Some tombs were known and entered in antiquity; others were rediscovered through excavation. Ancient graffiti record particular visits, not necessarily uninterrupted access. [Open the Valley of the Kings guide](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-kings) Look closely, photograph only where permitted, and keep hands and bags clear of ancient surfaces. Follow barriers and conservation instructions. Continue reading ## Where this leads. 1–1 / 8 [Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Kings The royal burial landscape of the New Kingdom: rock-cut tombs tucked into a desert valley, separate from the kings’ major commemorative temples. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-kings)[Museum · East bank ### Luxor Museum A museum that brings objects from ancient Thebes into focus, from royal sculpture to reconstructed temple reliefs. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/luxor-museum)[Person ### Tutankhamun A short reign, a remarkable burial and an extraordinary legacy for the study of ancient Egypt. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/tutankhamun)[Person ### Ay The courtier who outlived two kings and then wore the crown himself, briefly. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/ay)[Itinerary ### One day in Luxor The west bank while it is cool, Karnak when the light softens. ](https://luxor101.com/itineraries/luxor-1-day)[Itinerary ### Two days in Luxor A bank a day, with the hottest hours spent indoors. ](https://luxor101.com/itineraries/luxor-2-days)[Itinerary ### Three days in Luxor The plan we would follow ourselves, and the one everything else is measured against. ](https://luxor101.com/itineraries/luxor-3-days)[Planning ### Choosing Tombs in the Valley of the Kings Choose KV34 for its distinctive Amduat drawings if the demanding route suits you, KV17 for carved funerary scenes, or KV62 for Tutankhamun’s burial setting. Confirm which tombs are open and separately ticketed before choosing. ](https://luxor101.com/journal/which-valley-of-the-kings-tombs) Sources & further reading 6 Tier 1 [The Howard Carter archive — the excavation records, object cards, plans and photographs from the tomb of Tutankhamun](https://tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/about) Griffith Institute, University of Oxford Official page indexed · checked 2026-09-19 Tier 2 The Complete Tutankhamun: The King, the Tomb, the Royal Treasure, Nicholas Reeves Thames & Hudson Tier 1 Theban Mapping Project — Atlas of the Theban Necropolis Theban Mapping Project Tier 1 [The conservation of the wall paintings in the tomb of Nefertari](https://www.getty.edu/news/processing-the-material-record-of-the-tomb-of-nefertari-project/) Getty Conservation Institute Online source checked 2026-09-19 Tier 1 [The Large Gilded Coffin of King Tutankhamun — transfer in July 2019](https://egymonuments.gov.eg/news/gilded-coffin-of-king-tutankhamun/) Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt) Online source checked 2026-09-19 Tier 1 [Conservation and Management of the Tomb of Tutankhamen — scientific investigation](https://www.getty.edu/projects/conservation-management-tomb-tutankhamen/scientific-investigation-to-understand-issues-in-the-tomb/) Getty Conservation Institute Online source checked 2026-09-19 Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [All stories](https://luxor101.com/journal)