Book Luxor tours & attraction tickets

Few places on earth carry the weight of history as openly as Luxor. Built across the ruins of ancient Thebes, the capital of Egypt's New Kingdom pharaohs, this city on the east bank of the Nile has been drawing travellers, scholars, and pilgrims for centuries, long before modern tourism gave the impulse a name. The sheer density of monuments here is without parallel: Luxor holds an estimated third of the world's ancient monuments within its boundaries, a fact that still manages to surprise even those who arrive expecting grandeur.

The city divides itself naturally along the Nile, and that division carries genuine meaning. The east bank, where the living city runs alongside the river, is anchored by two of the most extraordinary temple complexes ever constructed. Karnak, reached from the northern end of town, is less a single temple than an accumulated city of worship, added to by successive pharaohs across more than a thousand years. The Avenue of Sphinxes once connected it to Luxor Temple, which sits closer to the centre and is particularly striking after dark when the stone takes on a warm amber tone under artificial light. Tickets for Karnak Temple are among the most straightforward purchases a visitor can make here, and the site rewards an early start before the heat of the day settles in.