5.0 on Tripadvisor Licensed by the Ministry of Tourism and AntiquitiesMinistry licensed guides On the river since 2011 Luxor and Aswan, every week
Luxor Temple stands in the middle of the modern town, a short walk from where the cruise ships moor. It was the setting for the Opet festival, when the statues of Amun, Mut and Khonsu were carried here from Karnak, and we keep it for the end of the day, when the stone turns gold and the lights come on.
Six things not to miss, from the front gate inwards.
Ramesses II built the great gateway and set a pair of 25-metre obelisks in front of it. One still stands here; the other has been in the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836.
A processional way of about 2.7 kilometres linking Luxor Temple to Karnak, lined with sphinxes by kings from the Eighteenth to the Thirtieth Dynasty. It was uncovered over some seventy years of excavation and opened to visitors in 2021.
A peristyle court added by Ramesses II, with standing statues of the king between its columns.
A mosque built on top of the court when the temple still lay under sand, and still in use today.
Two rows of seven colossal columns, built by Amenhotep III. The walls behind them were decorated under Tutankhamun and Horemheb with the procession of the Opet festival.
The sphinxes nearest the temple carry the face of Nectanebo I, a king of the Thirtieth Dynasty, who rebuilt this part of the avenue in the fourth century BC.
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The Roman fort. In the late third century AD the Romans built a fort around the temple and turned one of its halls into a shrine for the emperors, with images of Diocletian on the walls.
The oldest part. The earliest structure still standing is a shrine from the reign of Hatshepsut, around 1470 BC, older than the rest of the temple.
Amenhotep III built the core of the temple around 1390 to 1352 BC, and Tutankhamun and Horemheb completed its decoration. About a century later Ramesses II added the court, the pylon and the obelisks. Every year, in the Opet festival, the images of Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu travelled here in procession from Karnak.
Luxor Temple and Karnak are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis, listed in 1979.
Every cruise we sell visits Luxor Temple with a licensed Egyptologist.
Yes. Entrance to Luxor Temple is part of the price on every cruise we sell, together with the other sites on the programme between Luxor and Aswan.
Yes. We visit Karnak first and Luxor Temple after it, the two great temples of Amun on the east bank, on the same afternoon.
Late afternoon into dusk. The sun lights the colonnade from the west, and after sunset the temple is floodlit.
No. The temple is in the centre of Luxor, close to the Corniche where the cruise ships moor.
Tell us your dates and we will send back two or three ships that fit, with real prices.
See also Karnak Temple, visited the same afternoon.
