Lying in the southwestern corner of the Valley, Sety II’s tomb was dug only a few meters away from the tomb of his wife Tausert, KV 14. The tomb has been open since antiquity, as Greek and Latin graffiti show, and it was visited by Europeans from the 18th century on. The tomb was cleared in the early 20th century by Howard Carter, but there still remain questions about the history of its cutting, decoration, and use. KV 15 was damaged by heavy rains in 1994 and a cement porch has been erected over the tomb’s entrance. The fine quality relief carving and painting in the first corridor is followed by hastily applied painted decoration in the rest of the tomb. the royal succession and a temporary usurpation of the throne by Amenmeses made his reign a confusing and brief one. Many other problems,  political and economic, plagued the court for the next dozen years. In such an environment, it is not surprising that planning for the king’s burial was an unpredictable undertaking.

CORRIDOR B Figures of Ma’at kneeling on a basket decorate the thicknesses of the gate leading into the corridor. A recess cut into the beginning of the left wall after it had been decorated may have been intended as gate into a side chamber, but work was abandoned. Scenes on the left wall show Sety II offering to Ra-Harakhty and Nefertum. The workmanship is of excellent quality; note, for example, the costume of the king. Farther on, the opening scene of the Litany of Ra is followed by columns of its text. These continue on the right wall. The ceiling is decorated with brightly colored panels showing vultures with wings spread. The nicely cut and painted text abruptly stops before the end of corridor B, replaced by hieroglyphs written in red ink but not cut. CORRIDOR C Red ink decoration continues into the next corridor and one can see hasty corrections to spelling and palaeography made by ancient scribes. At the beginning of the corridor, Sety II offers a small figure of Ma’at to Ra-Harakhty on the left wall and incense to Sokar on the right. Both walls are decorated with more of the Litany of Ra. In the upper register on each wall, the seventy-four forms of the sun god are shown, and beyond, the second and third hours of the Imydwat. On the ceiling, a sun disk with the ramheaded ba-bird of Ra is

The tomb plan is simple and abbreviated because it was never finished. What should have been a corridor beyond pillared chamber F was hastily converted into the burial chamber.Sety II was the eldest son of Merenptah, but a row over flanked by figures of Isis and Nephthys.

CORRIDOR D Again, in unfinished red ink outline we see the fourth hour (left wall) and fifth hour (right wall) of the Imydwat. CHAMBER E No well shaft was dug here but the upper parts of the walls are decorated with images of divine statues, rather crudely drawn in red ink outline, and then filled with thick yellow ochre. One shows a statue of the king atop a feline in a shrine; another shows the king on a small reed boat holding a harpoon. Royal cartouches appear in faint blue paint. CHAMBER F This fourpillared chamber with a central descent is decorated with the Book of Gates. The fifth hour is on the front and left walls, the sixth hour on the front, rear, and right walls. A double scene of the king offering to Osiris appears at the center of the rear wall. Only red and yellow pigments were used on the walls. On the pillars, green was added to scenes of the king with many gods. Figures of Ptah on the front faces of the first two pillars are more elaborately drawn than the other scenes here: the god stands in a shrine whose woven basketry walls are hastily but successfully detailed. CHAMBER J Originally meant to be another corridor, chamber J was adapted as a burial chamber with almost no alteration to its plan. The roughly cut walls were heavily plastered and crudely painted with scenes of the sixth hour of the Book of Gates on the left and right walls and with figures of deities. Scenes of Anubis jackals atop shrines and of Osiris, both standard scenes from the sixth hour, are included. The ceiling is painted with a large and unusual figure of Nut. Sety II’s sarcophagus, of red granite, lies broken on the floor.

From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a