Egypt · Nile Valley
Luxor
Ancient Thebes, still standing: Karnak on one bank of the Nile, the Valley of the Kings cut into the cliffs on the other.
Luxor is built over Thebes, the capital of Egypt at the height of the New Kingdom, and it is the densest concentration of ancient monuments anywhere. The east bank holds the living town and the temples of Karnak and Luxor, joined by a processional avenue of sphinxes. Across the river the desert cliffs hide the Valley of the Kings, with a line of mortuary temples strung along the edge of the farmland below. A ten-minute ferry connects the two halves.
Suggested stay
3–4 days
Language
Arabic
Currency
EGP
Timezone
UTC+3
Why you'll love Luxor
Karnak two thousand years of pharaohs building over each other, and a hall of 134 columns so tall the light barely reaches the floor.
The west bank tombs cut deep into the rock, still holding their colour after three thousand years, above a green strip of sugarcane and mud-brick villages.
Dawn balloons baskets lift off the floodplain at first light, when the whole necropolis turns gold and the heat has not started.
The Nile feluccas working the current between banana islands, and a corniche that does the job of the town's main square at sunset.
Best time to visit
Nov-Mar
23-30° days
25.702° N, 32.647° E
UTC+3 · Africa/Cairo
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Weather & when to go to Luxor
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Nov-Mar
Watch for Apr-Oct extreme heat risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Luxor
May to September is punishing here. Upper Egypt runs well past 40C in the shade, and the tombs, which have no ventilation, are hotter still. Winter is the season, though January and February mornings on the west bank are cold enough for a jacket before the sun gets up, and the sites are at their busiest.
Top things to do in Luxor
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Karnak Temple - the Great Hypostyle Hall and the sacred lake
history culture arts 👍 PopularNot one temple but a walled precinct that successive pharaohs added to for two millennia: pylons, obelisks, a chapel district and the hall of 134 sandstone columns carved with sunk relief to the roofline. Go at opening or in the last hour, when the shadows fall across the columns and the coach groups have thinned.
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Valley of the Kings - inside the painted tombs
history 👍 PopularA dry side valley behind the cliffs holding more than sixty royal tombs, each a corridor driven into the rock and covered floor to ceiling in funerary texts and star-painted ceilings. A standard ticket covers a choice of three; Seti I, Nefertari's neighbour tombs and Tutankhamun's own small chamber need separate ones.
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Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari - terraces under the cliff
history scenic 👍 PopularThree colonnaded terraces stacked against a 300 m amphitheatre of rock, startlingly modern-looking beside everything else in Egypt. The reliefs record her divine birth and the trading expedition to Punt, with the incense trees still shown being carried aboard. There is no shade on the ramps, so come early.
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Luxor Temple - the avenue of sphinxes and the floodlit courts
history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedRight in the middle of town, so you can walk to it after dinner. Ramesses II's pylon and colossi front a court where a medieval mosque sits on top of the ancient fill, and a Roman chapel carries Christian frescoes over pharaonic relief. Lit at night, it is the best hour of the day here.
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Medinet Habu - Ramesses III's fortress temple
history off beaten path ⭐ Highly recommendedThe best-preserved of the west bank mortuary temples and the least visited of the big ones. Battle scenes against the Sea Peoples are cut hand-deep into the outer walls, and the inner courts keep more original paint than anywhere else at Luxor, with blues and ochres still readable on the ceilings.
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Hot-air balloon over the west bank - dawn above the necropolis
adventure scenicBaskets go up from the fields before sunrise and drift over the Ramesseum, Medinet Habu and the ridge above the royal valleys, with the Nile and the whole cultivated strip laid out beneath. Flights run roughly an hour and land among the sugarcane. Winter mornings are the calm ones.
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Valley of the Queens - the tomb of Nefertari
history culture artsA smaller valley of royal wives and princes, chiefly visited for Nefertari's tomb, the finest painted chamber in Egypt: the queen led through the underworld by the gods across walls of intact colour on brilliant white plaster. Entry is capped and needs a separate ticket, with a strict time limit inside.
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Deir el-Medina - the village that built the tombs
history off beaten pathThe stone footings of the workmen's settlement, where the craftsmen who cut the royal tombs lived, argued and went on strike over late grain rations. Their own tombs on the hill above are exquisite miniatures, particularly Sennedjem's, and the Ptolemaic temple of Hathor stands complete at the end of the site.
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Tombs of the Nobles - Sennefer, Ramose and Rekhmire
history off beaten pathScattered through the village hillsides of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, these officials' tombs show daily life rather than the underworld: harvests, banquets, foreign tribute, boat-building. Sennefer's ceiling is painted as a grape arbour. They come in small clusters on separate tickets and get almost no coach traffic.
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The Ramesseum and the Colossi of Memnon
history scenicTwo seated giants stranded in a field are all that survives at the front of Amenhotep III's temple; one of them sang at dawn for Roman tourists until it was repaired. Nearby, the toppled colossus of Ramesses II lies in pieces at his own mortuary temple, the ruin that prompted Shelley to write Ozymandias.
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Luxor Museum - the statue cache from Amun's temple
culture arts historySmall, dark and superbly displayed, which makes it the opposite of a slog. The core is the hoard of near-perfect statues found buried in a court at Luxor Temple, plus a wall of Akhenaten's talatat blocks reassembled from Karnak and two royal mummies. An hour well spent in the heat of the afternoon.
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Felucca on the Nile - Banana Island and the sunset crossing
scenic nature wildlifeLateen-rigged sailing boats work the stretch of river between the two banks, tacking up to the palm-covered islands and back down on the current. Late afternoon is the point: the cliffs go pink behind the necropolis and the temple pylons catch the last light from the water.
Best areas to stay in Luxor
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
East Bank Corniche and centre
First-time visitors $$Riverfront hotels beside temple and souk
Explore hotels in East Bank Corniche and centre →
Khaled ibn al-Walid street
Choice and value $Busy hotel strip south of the centre
Explore hotels in Khaled ibn al-Walid street →
Gezira, by the west bank ferry
West bank guesthouses $Village guesthouses at the crossing
Explore hotels in Gezira, by the west bank ferry →
Al-Bairat and Medinet Habu
Quiet among ruins $$Quiet lanes among the mortuary temples
Explore hotels in Al-Bairat and Medinet Habu →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Luxor
Getting to & around Luxor
Getting there
Fly into Luxor International, about 15-20 min east of the Corniche by taxi, or arrive overland: the sleeper train from Cairo sets down a few streets behind Luxor Temple.
Flight
Luxor International Airport (LXR)
One small terminal on the desert edge east of town, with no train or scheduled bus link. Taxis and hotel cars run into the east bank in about 15-20 min, or 40 min or so to west bank guesthouses via the bridge south of the centre.
Train
Luxor railway station
Sleeper and day trains run up the valley from Cairo in roughly 10-11 hr overnight, and from Aswan in about 3 hr. The station sits a few blocks inland from Luxor Temple.
Cruise
Corniche moorings
Nile cruise boats work the Luxor-Aswan stretch in three or four nights, calling at Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo, and tie up along the east bank Corniche.
Coach
Luxor bus station
Buses cross the desert from Hurghada in about 4-5 hr, the usual link for anyone flying into the Red Sea, and run up and down the valley to Aswan and Cairo.
Drive
Luxor
The valley road follows the Nile from Aswan in around 3-3.5 hr; the desert highway from Hurghada is faster than the map suggests but bleak.
Getting around
On foot, east bank
The Corniche, Luxor Temple, the souk and the museum are all walkable; Karnak is a long, hot 3 km north.
Free
Local ferry to the west bank
Flat-bottomed boats shuttle constantly from the landing opposite Luxor Temple, roughly ten minutes across.
TBC
Taxi
The default for Karnak and the airport. Agree the fare before you get in; meters are not used.
TBC
West bank car for the day
The sensible way to do the tombs and temples: a driver waits between sites, which are kilometres apart with no shade.
TBC
Bicycle or scooter hire
Popular on the flat west bank lanes between the temples, but only workable outside the hottest months.
TBC
Caleche (horse carriage)
Tourist transport along the Corniche rather than real transport. Fix the price first and check the horse looks well kept.
TBC
Day trips from Luxor
Dendera
Half dayPainted temple ceilings
The temple of Hathor stands almost intact, and its cleaned hypostyle ceiling is the best-preserved painted astronomy in Egypt: the sky goddess arching over zodiac bands in restored blue and gold. Crypts run beneath the floor, and Cleopatra and Caesarion appear on the outside wall.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1-1.5 hr each way by road
Abydos
Full daySeti I's cult temple
Egypt's holiest site, where Osiris was said to be buried. Seti I's temple holds the finest raised relief anywhere, carved with a delicacy nothing later matched, plus the king list naming his predecessors. Behind it the Osireion sits below the water table in massive plain granite.
Getting there
car | tour
About 3 hr each way by road, usually combined with Dendera
Esna and Edfu
Full dayTemples upriver
Esna's hypostyle hall sits in a pit below the modern town, its columns cleaned back to astonishing colour. Edfu, further south, is the most completely preserved temple in Egypt: pylon, courts, sanctuary and the falcon god Horus standing guard in black granite.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1 hr and 2 hr each way by road
Aswan
1-2 daysNile cataract city
The Nile at its best, running blue between granite boulders and desert dunes, with Philae temple on its island, Nubian villages on the west bank and feluccas everywhere. Worth an overnight rather than a rush, and the launch point for Abu Simbel.
Getting there
train | car | bus
About 3 hr by train or road
Hurghada and the Red Sea
1-2 daysCoral reef coast
The desert highway east reaches the Red Sea in half a day, and the reefs off Giftun island are the standard antidote to a week of dust and stone. Snorkelling and diving from day boats, and warm water even when Luxor mornings are cold.
Getting there
bus | car
About 4-5 hr each way by road
A little history of Luxor
Thebes was a provincial town until the 11th Dynasty rulers based here reunited Egypt around 2055 BC. Its god, Amun, rose with it, and by the New Kingdom the temple of Amun at Karnak was the wealthiest institution in the country, owning fleets, farmland and much of the gold coming out of Nubia. Successive pharaohs added to it rather than replacing it, which is why the precinct reads as a thousand-year building site. The kings themselves were buried across the river, out of sight in a desert valley behind the cliffs, with their mortuary temples along the edge of the floodplain and whole villages of craftsmen employed on the tombs.
Power moved north after 1070 BC, the priesthood quietly rewrapped and hid the royal mummies from robbers, and the Assyrians sacked the city in 663 BC. Greeks, Romans and early Christians reused what they found: a legionary camp inside Luxor Temple, chapels among the tombs. The modern name comes from the Arabic al-Uqsur, the palaces. European excavation began in earnest in the 1800s, and in 1922 Howard Carter found the one royal tomb the robbers had missed.
Mentuhotep II reunites Egypt from Thebes and builds a terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari.
The first royal tombs are cut in the Valley of the Kings; Karnak begins its long expansion.
Hatshepsut rules as pharaoh, raising obelisks at Karnak and her temple beneath the cliffs.
Ramesses II completes the Great Hypostyle Hall, fronts Luxor Temple and builds the Ramesseum.
The New Kingdom ends; priests move the royal mummies into hidden caches to save them from tomb robbers.
Assyrian armies sack Thebes, a shock recorded as far away as the Hebrew prophets.
A Roman legionary camp is built inside Luxor Temple; later a mosque to Abu al-Haggag rises over the buried courtyard.
Howard Carter opens Tutankhamun's tomb, the only royal burial found close to intact.
The processional avenue of sphinxes between Karnak and Luxor Temple is excavated and reopened along its full length.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+20
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The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
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FAQs about Luxor
▸ When is the best time to visit Luxor?
November to March. Days are warm and dry, which is what you want for hours of walking across open stone, and the mornings are cool enough to start early. From May to September the heat in Upper Egypt is severe and the tombs are stifling; April and October sit in between.
▸ How many days do you need in Luxor?
Three full days is the honest minimum: one for Karnak and Luxor Temple, and two on the west bank, because the Valley of the Kings, Deir el-Bahari, Medinet Habu and the nobles' tombs cannot be done well in a single morning. A fourth day buys a balloon flight or Dendera.
▸ Should you stay on the east bank or the west bank?
The east bank has the restaurants, the museum, the station and the walkable temple; the west bank has fields, quiet and a head start on the tombs. Ferries run constantly, so it is a question of whether you want a town or a village. First-timers usually pick the east bank.
▸ Is the hot-air balloon flight worth doing?
Yes, if you accept a very early start. Seeing the mortuary temples, the cultivated strip and the desert edge in one frame explains the geography of Thebes better than any map, and the light at sunrise is the best of the day. Flights are weather-dependent and get cancelled for wind.
▸ Which tombs should you choose in the Valley of the Kings?
The standard ticket covers three of the open tombs, which rotate. Ramesses VI, with its full astronomical ceiling, and Ramesses III are reliable choices. Seti I is the finest tomb in Egypt and needs its own ticket. Tutankhamun's is small and holds his mummy, but the treasure is in Cairo.
▸ Is the hassle in Luxor as bad as people say?
It is persistent rather than threatening. Caleche drivers, felucca captains and shop touts work the Corniche hard, and the west bank sites have their own approaches. A firm, friendly no repeated a few times works. Hiring a driver for the day removes most of it, and evenings are calmer.