# KV15
KV15 is the tomb of the Nineteenth Dynasty pharaoh [Seti II](https://www.edgepedia.org/seti-ii) (also written Sety II) in the [Valley of the Kings](https://www.edgepedia.org/valley-of-the-kings) at Thebes.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) It sits at the head of the branch wadi (dry riverbed that floods occasionally) running southwest from the main valley, its entrance cut directly into the vertical cliff face on a northeast-southwest axis, in the same manner as the neighboring tomb KV14.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) The tomb was never finished: work halted and resumed at least once before the king died, and the burial chamber is a corridor hastily converted at the last moment.[2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Occupant | Seti II, Nineteenth Dynasty, successor of Merenptah[3](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/setiII/) |
| Plan | Entryway, three corridors, well-less chamber, pillared chamber, adapted-corridor burial chamber[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) |
| Size | 75.38 m long, about 6.53 m deep, no lateral rooms[4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm) |
| Completion | Unfinished; relief carving only in the first corridor, paint alone elsewhere[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) |
| Burial | Probably went ahead; mummy later moved to the KV35 cache of Amenhotep II[2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/) |
| Clearance | Investigated by Richard Pococke in 1738; properly cleared by Howard Carter in 1903-04[4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm) |
| Graeco-Roman use | Over sixty Greek and other graffiti show it stayed open in antiquity[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) |
## Seti II and the late Nineteenth Dynasty
Seti II succeeded his father Merenptah, but the succession was disputed. After Merenptah's death a rival, [Amenmesse](https://www.edgepedia.org/amenmesse), also claimed the throne, and Seti II lost control of Thebes to him.[5](https://madainproject.com/kv15_(tomb_of_seti_ii)) The current reconstruction, supported by the halt of work on KV15 and by the absence of references naming Seti in [Upper Egypt](https://www.edgepedia.org/upper-egypt) during the relevant years, is that Amenmesse held only Thebes and Upper Egypt during the third and fourth years of Seti's reign, while Seti retained the north.[3](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/setiII/) This dispute is the most common explanation for the interruptions visible in the tomb's construction and for the erasure and restoration of the king's names on its walls.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii)
**The tomb reflects these disruptions.** When Seti II died, KV15 was incomplete, so the plan was hastily amended: a corridor was converted into the burial chamber, and many funerary objects that could not be provided physically were instead represented by paintings on the tomb walls.[3](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/setiII/)
## Location and architecture
KV15 is a straight axial tomb leading 75.38 meters into the cliff face, with a mild descent of about 6.53 meters and no lateral rooms.[4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm) The entrance was quarried directly into the base of an almost vertical cliff face rather than cut below a retaining wall.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii)
The sequence runs from a short entryway (A) through three long corridors (B, C, D), then a chamber without a well shaft (E), a pillared chamber with a central descent (F), and finally the burial chamber (J), adapted from an unfinished corridor.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) The Theban Mapping Project survey records corridor B at 15.32 m in length, 2.74 m wide, and 3.3 m high, with a volume of 138.66 m³, and a pillared chamber of 21.51 m² and 63.54 m³.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) • [5](https://madainproject.com/kv15_(tomb_of_seti_ii)) A recess cut through the first figure of the king in corridor B may mark the start of an intended gate.[5](https://madainproject.com/kv15_(tomb_of_seti_ii)) The chamber normally found in the right wall of the pillared hall was never excavated, though a rectangular recess may have been an intended doorway.[2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/)
## Decoration and inscriptions
KV15 follows the same basic plan and iconographic program as the tomb of Seti II's father Merenptah ([KV8](https://www.edgepedia.org/kv8)): the Litany of Re in the descending corridors, the Amduat further along, an Osiris shrine, and [Book of Gates](https://www.edgepedia.org/book-of-gates) scenes in the pillared hall, and a burial chamber with the sky-goddess Nut on the ceiling.[2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/) Corridor B shows Seti II offering to Ra-Horakhty and Nefertem and the opening vignette of the [Litany of Ra](https://www.edgepedia.org/litany-of-ra); the pillared chamber displays divisions of the Book of Gates.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) The four pillars carry figures of Seti II, Horus-Iwnmutef, Ptah in a shrine and other deities, and the center of the rear wall shows a double scene of Sety II offering an image of Ma'at and two vases to Osiris.[5](https://madainproject.com/kv15_(tomb_of_seti_ii))
**Quality and technique mark the halt.** Only the first corridor is decorated in sunk and raised relief; the decoration in the rest of the tomb, probably completed after the king's death, was done in paint alone, with preliminary sketches in red ink on grayish-brown plaster in the second and third corridors.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) • [2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/) The converted burial chamber has rough walls and ceiling coated with plaster and painted with Anubis jackals, followers of Ra, and Osiris over mummiform figures on snake beds, with a winged Nut on the ceiling.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) In place of the standard scenes of the king with deities, the well room was painted with images of funerary objects and statues, substituting pictures for the equipment itself.[2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/) • [3](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/setiII/)
## Excavation, burial evidence and later history
Richard Pococke investigated the tomb as early as 1738, but it was cleared properly only with [Howard Carter](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-carter)'s work in 1903-04; the ritual well chamber was never excavated.[4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm) After 1922 the tomb served Alfred Lucas and Arthur Mace as a laboratory for artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb.[4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm) More than sixty Greek and other graffiti on the walls show that KV15 remained open throughout the later Graeco-Roman period.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii)
**The burial probably took place.** Fragments of the red granite sarcophagus lid, a rectangular lid with an effigy of the king (surviving height 1.03 m), were found in the tomb, and a mummy labeled with Seti II's cartouches turned up in the KV35 cache of [Amenhotep II](https://www.edgepedia.org/amenhotep-ii).[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) • [2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/) The head end of the lid and the whole box are missing; the face of the goddess Nut from the lid's underside is now in the Louvre.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii) The coffer may have been removed for reuse at the end of the New Kingdom.[6](http://narmer.pl/kv/kv15en.htm) Little funerary equipment was found.[4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm) Aidan Dodson has suggested that because this is the smallest New Kingdom sarcophagus known, it may have been meant to nest within a larger one, similar to that of [Ramesses III](https://www.edgepedia.org/ramesses-iii); a study of Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasty sarcophagi argues on stylistic and inscriptional grounds that the sarcophagus later used by Ramesses III was likely begun for Sethos II himself.[4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm) • [7](https://www.academia.edu/310116/Was_the_Sarcophagus_of_Ramesses_III_Begun_for_Sethos_II)
After the 1994 floods a cement extension with a roof was built out from the cliff face to protect the entrance; restorers of the Supreme Council of Antiquities have filled breaks in the walls, and wooden walkways and fluorescent lighting were installed.[1](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii)
## Comparison with other Valley of the Kings tombs
KV15 belongs to a distinctive late Nineteenth Dynasty type. Its plan and program replicate KV8, the tomb of Merenptah.[2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/) KV14, begun in the second year of Seti II's reign for his Great Wife Tausret, the only Nineteenth Dynasty queen given a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, is far larger, at more than 112 m with two burial chambers, and was ultimately usurped for [Setnakhte](https://www.edgepedia.org/setnakhte).[8](https://madainproject.com/kv14_%28tomb_of_tausert_and_setnakhte%29) • [9](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV14/) KV15, at 75.38 m with a single converted burial chamber and decoration abandoned in red-ink outline, stands at the opposite end of the scale of ambition and completion.[2](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/) • [4](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm)
## References
1. [Sety II | Theban Mapping Project](https://thebanmappingproject.com/index.php/tombs/kv-15-sety-ii)
2. [KV 15 | Ancient Egypt Online](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV15/)
3. [Seti II, Ancient Egypt Online](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/setiII/)
4. [Seti II and his Tomb (KV15) in the Valley of the Kings | Tour Egypt](https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seti2.htm)
5. https://madainproject.com/kv15_(tomb_of_seti_ii)
6. [KV 15 | Ancient Egypt - History and Chronology](http://narmer.pl/kv/kv15en.htm)
7. [Was the Sarcophagus of Ramesses III Begun for Sethos II?](https://www.academia.edu/310116/Was_the_Sarcophagus_of_Ramesses_III_Begun_for_Sethos_II)
8. [KV14 (Tomb of Tausert and Setnakhte) - Madain Project](https://madainproject.com/kv14_%28tomb_of_tausert_and_setnakhte%29)
9. [KV 14 | Ancient Egypt Online](https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/KV14/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Ancient and historical places › Cities and sites of the ancient Near East, Egypt, and Nubia › Ancient Egypt › New Kingdom: cities, sites, and monuments › New Kingdom: royal and private tombs › Valley of the Kings tombs*
*Initially written Sep 19, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026 · Last review: Sep 19, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license