Inside Amenhotep III's Restored Tomb: Adding It to Your Luxor Valley of the Kings Day

Crossing to the west bank

Everything here is across the river. A taxi from the east bank over the Luxor Bridge takes about 45 minutes. The local ferry near Luxor Temple takes about 10 minutes and runs every 15 to 20 minutes. A taxi on from the landing costs around ج.م150 one way. If you want to be at the gate when it opens, take the ferry.

Choosing your three tombs

Entry to the Valley of the Kings is ج.م750 for adults and ج.م375 for students, plus ج.م20 for the tram up to the gate. Decide which three tombs you want before you reach the turnstile. In 2026 the standard ticket has covered Ramesses IX, Ramesses III, Merenptah, Ramesses IV and the double tomb of Tausert and Setnakht. Thutmose III is closed.

Last entry is 17:00 in summer, 16:00 in winter and during Ramadan. Allow two to three hours for three tombs plus one or two of the ones with their own ticket. The valley is a bare limestone bowl with no shade anywhere. In high summer, be at the gate by 07:00 or do something else with the morning.

The two tickets worth adding

The extra ticket to buy is the Tomb of Ramesses V and VI, at ج.م220 for adults and ج.م110 for students on top of valley entry. A straight corridor runs about 104 metres into the rock to a barrel-vaulted burial chamber. The sky goddess Nut is painted twice across that ceiling, in yellow on indigo. At one end she swallows the sun, at the other she gives birth to it. The star map is easy to pick out, and fragments of the smashed royal sarcophagus are still in the chamber. Allow 25 to 35 minutes.

The Tomb of Tutankhamun is ج.م700 for adults and ج.م350 for students, charged separately from valley entry. Inside there is a short corridor and one small painted burial chamber. The Opening of the Mouth ritual is on the north wall, and a funeral procession runs along the east wall. The king is still there, laid out in a climate-controlled glass case, and the stone sarcophagus has not moved. The gold mask and the rest of the grave goods are in the Grand Egyptian Museum. Allow 15 to 20 minutes. Pay it if the Tutankhamun story is why you came to Egypt. Skip it if you are expecting treasure, because the room is plain next to its neighbours.

Over the ridge to Ay

The Tomb of Ay is in the Western Valley, over the ridge that divides the two valleys. It is about five minutes from the main ticket office by tram or car. Entry is ج.م200 for adults and ج.م100 for students, on its own ticket bought at that same office. The burial chamber has a row of twelve baboons facing you, one for each hour of the night. They are where the nickname Valley of the Monkeys comes from. Hardly anyone goes, so you will often have it to yourself. There is a hilly walk up from the parking area, so leave it out if you are short on time or not steady on your feet.

Nobles by the Hatshepsut car park

The El-Asasif Tombs sit about a hundred metres from the parking area for Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri, and almost nobody walks over. You go down a ramp through a mudbrick gateway into a sunken open-air courtyard ringed with heavy square pillars. Pabasa's hall is carved with farming, winemaking, fishing and weaving. On one door jamb a kneeling beekeeper lifts honeycomb out of horizontal hives. The cluster ticket is ج.م200 for adults, with Pabasa listed separately at ج.م100, and the Pabasa ticket usually admits you to Kheruef and Ankh-Hor as well. Check at the ticket office which one you are buying, and carry a small torch, as some chambers are dim.

The artisans' village

Deir el-Medina is where the men who cut the royal tombs lived, and they built their own tombs on the slope above the village. Entry is ج.م220 for adults and ج.م110 for students, covering the mudbrick houses and the tombs of Sennedjem, Inherkhau and Pashedu. Sennedjem's chamber is one of the most intact painted tombs in Egypt. The scene people come for shows him and his wife Iyneferti harvesting grain in the Field of Reeds. Pashedu's tomb is down about 30 steps cut into the cliff. Anubis waits in jackal form at the doorway, and inside Pashedu kneels to drink under a dom-palm.

Allow 60 to 90 minutes with the small temple of Hathor at the northern edge. Tickets are sold at the Antiquities Inspectorate office, so pick them up on the way. The site is 5 to 6 km from the ferry landing, 10 to 15 minutes by taxi. The best chambers are all down steep narrow stairs.

Ramose and the Amarna wall

If you have already done the royal valleys, the Tomb of Ramose at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna is the one to add. It is ج.م200 for adults and ج.م100 for students, and the ticket also covers Userhat and Khaemhat next door. The columned hall is carved in very fine low relief and left unpainted. One side of the tomb then switches to the Amarna style, with elongated skulls and stretched limbs, and Akhenaten and Nefertiti rewarding Ramose with gold collars. The work was abandoned unfinished, so you can still see the stages of carving and painting on the walls. Allow 25 to 30 minutes. The hillside paths are unpaved and there is no wheelchair access.

Nefertari is still closed

The Valley of the Queens is an easier walk than the kings' valley. Entry is ج.م220 for adults and ج.م110 for students, and the princes' tombs alone are worth that. Their chambers are covered in bright, close-up figures. One shows a pharaoh leading a boy by the hand before the gods. Khaemwaset, Amunherkhepshef and Tyti have been the tombs open through 2026. The list rotates, and the current one is posted at the ticket office. Nefertari's tomb has been closed since 2 March 2024 and there is no reopening date. Do not book anything that promises it, and do not buy a premium pass on the strength of it. An electric buggy runs between here and the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Before you set off

Everything on the west bank opens at 06:00 and nothing runs late, so an early start buys you the most tombs. Settle your three choices and buy the separate tickets at the ticket office before you go through. See the Luxor guide and the Luxor hotel search.