Luxor Travel Guide: Temples, Tombs & the Nile (2026)

If Cairo is Egypt's present, Luxor is its past made visible. Built over ancient Thebes, it splits its wonders across the Nile: temples for the living on the East Bank, tombs for the dead on the West Bank. There is more standing antiquity here than anywhere on earth, and two well-planned days let you feel it without blurring it together. Every site below sits on the interactive map, trace the river and see how the two banks face each other. ## East Bank: temples of the living Karnak is the headline. Its Great Hypostyle Hall packs 134 colossal columns into a forest so vast that visitors fall silent inside it; the wider complex grew over two thousand years and is among the largest religious sites ever built. Go early to beat the heat and the tour buses. A short way south, Luxor Temple is best saved for the evening, when it's floodlit and the avenue of sphinxes that once linked it to Karnak glows gold. It's the finest-value night out in Upper Egypt. ## West Bank: the realm of the dead Cross the river to the necropolis. The Valley of the Kings hides the rock-cut tombs of New Kingdom pharaohs, their painted ceilings and hieroglyphs still vivid after three thousand years; your ticket covers a rotation of tombs, with Seti I and (in the neighbouring Valley of the Queens) Nefertari carrying separate fees and worth every pound. Nearby rise the terraced Temple of Hatshepsut, the artisans' village of Deir el-Medina, and the lone Colossi of Memnon standing guard over the floodplain. ## Float over it at sunrise The experience that lives up to its photographs: a hot-air balloon lifting off in the cool dark as the sun climbs over the Theban hills and the Valley of the Kings, the Ramesseum and the green Nile resolve beneath you. Book the earliest slot and you're back for breakfast. ## The gateway to the Nile Luxor is the northern end of the classic Nile cruise to Aswan, calling at temples, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Esna, that are hard to reach any other way. For choosing a boat and direction, read our Nile cruise guide. ## How long & getting there

• How long: 2 days does the East and West banks justice; add a morning for the balloon. Many travellers then cruise on to Aswan.
• Getting there: short domestic flights from Cairo (about an hour) or the overnight sleeper train; the Luxor, Aswan leg is loveliest by cruise.
• When: October to April for comfortable temple days; summer means very early starts to beat 40°C-plus heat. ## Plan the rest Pair Luxor with Aswan and the river, time it with the best time to visit Egypt, and see where it fits in the wider Egypt Travel Guide 2026.