Things to Do in Luxor

The enormous Luxor Temple was one of the great constructions of the New Kingdom (dating from the 14th century BC) dedicated to the god Amun. It was known as the “Southern Sanctuary” and was the site of ceremonies aimed at encouraging the life-giving Nile floods.

Once through the processional Avenue of Sphinxes you come to the First Pylon, which announces the phenomenal scale of the stonework here: statues, columns and obelisks all compete with each other in a race to the sky.

Ensuing civilizations have also left their marks: there’s a shrine erected by Alexander the Great, Roman wall frescoes as well as a 14th century AD mosque, ensuring this remains a place of worship in the present day.

While the size of its collection can’t rival the treasures of Cairo, Luxor Museum is renowned as one of the thoughtfully assembled displays of antiquities in Egypt. Most of its exhibits come from temples and other constructions in the Luxor area.

The Avenue of Sphinxes was the site of ceremonial processions and originally connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak, although it is considerably more recent than either of those sites, dating to around 380 BC. It stretched some 1.5 miles (2.7 kilometers) and would once have had 1,350 sphinxes lining its sides. Around half of those have been uncovered, with many reworked by later civilizations or sitting in museums. Much of the avenue itself is covered by modern buildings.

There are dozens of examples in various states of preservation forming the immediate approach to each temple. Some of them bear the cat-like features of the famous Great Sphinx at Giza, others have rams’ heads. The entire avenue is the subject of a major ongoing excavation project.

Creating the Valley of the Kings was no simple undertaking: a small army of builders, engineers, engravers and other workers was required to carve the dozens of tombs out of sheer rock over the centuries.

Naturally they all had to be housed somewhere, ideally not too far away. But it was only with the discovery Valley of the Artisans (or Deir el-Medina), around the time of the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb, that we learnt more about their living conditions.

The outlines of the “workmen’s village” are still clearly visible, and extant reliefs offer a fascinating portrait of everyday life. All of this makes the Valley of the Artisans a pleasant change after countless monuments glorifying the pharaohs and their morbid fixation on the afterlife.

The boy pharaoh Tutankhamun, who ruled the New Kingdom in the 14th century, enjoys fame disproportionate to his short reign and modest achievements. This is mostly due to the discovery of his largely intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, his mummy adorned by a dazzling gold mask (now in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, along with most of the tomb’s other bling).

Having risked the curse said to await anyone who disturbs the tomb’s rest, visitors may be slightly disappointed by its modest scale and relative lack of adornment. “King Tut” is, however, still in residence, his linen-wrapped mummy visible in a glass box watched over by richly colored wall paintings.

Located on Egypt's Red Sea coast, the port of Safaga has a small but lively tourism industry, primarily centered on scuba diving and surfing. For most cruise passengers, the port will serve as an entry way to visit Luxor several hours away. It is also a port for ferries to and from Saudi Arabia, just across the Red Sea.

How to get to Luxor

Luxor is about a three and a half hour drive from Safaga, so you will likely visit as part of an organized shore excursion, often one that includes an overnight stay in Luxor.  If you prefer to go independently, a taxi may run as much as $100 each way and must be arranged in advance. Either way, you will travel as part of a police-escorted convoy through the desert to Luxor.

One Day in Luxor

Most shore excursions will include Luxor's three must-see sights: Luxor Temple, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings. Visiting all three will easily fill up your entire day.

Located in the heart of the city on the east bank of the Nile, Luxor Temple was built by pharaohs Amenhotep III and Ramses II in the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.  Entering the temple, you will pass between two enormous seated statues of Ramses II on your way to the courts of the two pharaohs. Don't miss the chapel of Alexander the Great toward the back of the temple, which includes images of Alexander as an Egyptian pharaoh.

Egypt's second most visited tourist site, Karnak is a vast complex covering 2 square kilometers, making it the largest ancient religious site in the world. The primary temple, the Temple of Amun, is the largest religious structure ever built "“ St. Peter's, Notre Dame and Milan Cathedrals would all fit inside. You will likely feel overwhelmed as you enter the complex through the massive Hypostyle Hall, lined with 134 columns, the largest of which are 21 meters tall and over 3 meters in diameter. Spend an hour or two at the complex exploring the array of smaller temples, sanctuaries and shrines.

The Valley of the Kings is located on the west bank of the Nile and contains the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs and nobles from the 16th to 11th centuries B.C. Many of the tombs were opened and robbed in ancient times, but extensive hieroglyphics and colorful frescoes remain in some, giving visitors an idea of how they may have looked centuries ago. An entry ticket to the Valley of the Kings generally allows you to enter three tombs of your choice, although they are not all open at the same time. Visiting the tomb of King Tutankhamun costs extra. No cameras are allowed inside the tombs, a rule that is enforced very strictly.

If you are staying in Luxor overnight, try a felucca ride on the Nile just before sunset and then head back to Karnak for an evening sound and light show. Alternatively, you might try your hand at bargaining in the market before returning to Luxor Temple to see it lit up at night.

The main lure at Dendera is the Temple of Hathor, one of the least ancient of ancient Egypt’s glories, main construction being more or less contemporary with the life of Christ, although it was built on much older foundations.

There are fascinating glimpses of the meeting of great civilizations, with a famous wall relief of Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra of legend) and her son, fathered by Julius Caesar. Other depictions of Roman emperors make this a Who's Who of the ancient world.

Well-preserved remnants in the Dendera complex also include modestly-sized Roman constructions and an early Coptic Christian basilica.

While not as well preserved as nearby Medinet Habu, this mortuary temple dedicated to Ramses II, dating to 1258 BC, still has more than enough to interest the visitor. In the inner sanctuary, for example, the majority of the columns in the hypostyle hall are still standing, as are a number of osirid statues standing sentinel at the entrance, albeit mostly without heads.

As is typical with such structures, giant wall reliefs trumpet the pharaoh’s military accomplishments and proclaim his immortality. But also on view are parts of the fallen Colossus of Ramses, which in Shelley’s poem Ozymandias (“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”) became a powerful warning against hubris.

The Tombs of the Nobles (or Valley of the Nobles) may lack the star power of the Valley of the Kings or other Luxor hot spots, but this lesser-visited gem is well worth the trip. A cemetery on a rare scale, the site features hundreds of tombs embedded in rock, often richly decorated with frescoes depicting the working lives of their inhabitants. The site is most often visited on day tours of Luxor's West Bank.

Where the fertile Nile floodplain meets the desert lies the Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, known locally by its Arabic name Medinet Habu. The whole compound forms a huge rectangle, with the temple a smaller rectangle within. The ensemble is the second largest in Luxor after Karnak, and is related in both style and scale to the nearby Ramesseum.

Visitors come here mainly for the outstanding wall reliefs, enormous depictions of pharaohs, gods and battles; one section serves as an accounting system for notching up vanquished enemies. There are also highly impressive hieroglyphs on both walls and columns. Other extant structures besides the Mortuary Temple itself include the Memorial of King Horemheb and the lavishly decorated tombs of favored New Kingdom officials.

The largest of Luxor’s temples, Karnak was one of the most sacred sites in ancient Egypt. It marked the ascendancy of Thebes (present day Luxor) as the capital of the New Kingdom, with construction beginning in the 16th century BC. Most subsequent rulers tinkered with the complex so it represents a great crash course in different pharaonic styles.

The major site here is the Temple of Amon, the largest place of worship ever constructed. There the Great Hypostyle Hall, which was once roofed, dwarfs visitors with its dozens of colossal columns reaching 25 yards (23 meters) into the sky.

Other highlights include the serene sacred lake, gargantuan statues of rulers and gods, as well as the best selection of obelisks in Egypt.

The vast Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari rivals the Pyramids as one of the great funerary monuments of the ancient world. Built into the towering cliff face which shelter the Valley of the Kings on the other side, it rises on three enormous terraces connected by ramps, each level marked with a colonnade of stark, largely unadorned square pillars.

Its namesake was one of the few female pharaohs of ancient Egypt, who not unfairly called her monument “Splendor of Splendors”. However, much of the construction dated from earlier rulers, starting with Mentuhotep II in 2050 BC. Numerous sphinxes and other statues have since disappeared, making the whole structure appear even more monolithic. 

The cool stone interior provides welcome relief from the pitiless heat of this region, and features well-preserved wall reliefs and hieroglyphics, some in brilliant colors.