Qualla: Tomb of Seti I https://qualla.com/tomb-of-seti-i en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/s/x/4/tomb-of-seti-i-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Tomb of Seti I https://qualla.com/tomb-of-seti-i Tomb of Seti I: Introduction https://qualla.com/tomb-of-seti-i/ Photo credit Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 16 October 1817, a six-foot-seven Italian who had once performed as a circus strongman in London squeezed through a gap in the Theban hills and into the most beautiful tomb anyone had ever found. Giovanni Belzoni called it "a fortunate day," and he was not exaggerating. The paint on the walls still looked fresh. Some of the ancient artists' brushes and pigments lay where they had been set down more than three thousand years before, as though the decorators had stepped out for a moment and never returned. This was KV17, the tomb of the pharaoh Seti I, and it remains the longest, deepest, and most lavishly decorated royal tomb in the entire Valley of the Kings.

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Image: Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/s/x/4/tomb-of-seti-i-wp/ssx4-tomb-of-seti-i-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tomb of Seti I: A Staircase Into the Mountain https://qualla.com/tomb-of-seti-i/ Photo credit Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0. KV17 plunges 137 meters into the bedrock, descending through corridor after corridor along an axis that wiggles before it steepens, then opens into hall after carved hall. Reliefs cover nearly every surface in all but two of its chambers. Seti stands before Ra, before Hathor, Hor...

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Image: Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/s/x/4/tomb-of-seti-i-wp/ssx4-tomb-of-seti-i-a-staircase-into-the-mountain.mp3 0:06 2 full Tomb of Seti I: The Showman From Padua https://qualla.com/tomb-of-seti-i/ Photo credit Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0. Belzoni was no trained scholar. Born in Padua, he had worked English fairgrounds as "the Patagonian Samson," lifting platforms full of men, before turning his strength and showmanship toward Egypt on behalf of the British consul Henry Salt. He had a genius for moving enormous obj...

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Image: Roland Unger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/s/x/4/tomb-of-seti-i-wp/ssx4-tomb-of-seti-i-the-showman-from-padua.mp3 0:06 3 full Tomb of Seti I: Scattered Across Europe https://qualla.com/tomb-of-seti-i/ Photo credit Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0. Seti's tomb was dismembered piece by piece and carried to the museums of the West. The pharaoh's sarcophagus, carved from a single block of translucent alabaster and covered inside and out with the spells of the Book of Gates, was offered first to the British Museum. They balked ...

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Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/s/x/4/tomb-of-seti-i-wp/ssx4-tomb-of-seti-i-scattered-across-europe.mp3 0:06 4 full Tomb of Seti I: The Empty Coffin https://qualla.com/tomb-of-seti-i/ Photo credit Tomb_of_King_Setnakht.jpg: Francesco Gasparetti derivative work: JMCC1 (talk), CC BY 2.0. When Belzoni reached the burial chamber, the alabaster sarcophagus was there, but the king was gone. Seti's mummy had been moved long before, by ancient priests trying to protect their rulers from the wave of tomb robbery that swept Thebes at the end of the New Kingdom. They even...

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Image: Tomb_of_King_Setnakht.jpg: Francesco Gasparetti derivative work: JMCC1 (talk) | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/s/x/4/tomb-of-seti-i-wp/ssx4-tomb-of-seti-i-the-empty-coffin.mp3 0:06 5 full