Ancient Luxor
Explore a temple or tomb
11 places across both banks: understand their history, find details to look for and plan your time.
Things to Do
Six ways to spend time here, each one linked to the guide that answers it properly.
Make room for both the monuments and the city around them. Explore a temple, spend time with a few tomb paintings, take a river outing or slow the day down for a family visit. The guides below help you choose the pace, preparation and practical arrangements that suit you.
Six decisions, six guides.
Nile Journeys
Plan a felucca outing
Compare cruise ships, dahabiyas and feluccas by pace, space and facilities, including a separate look at smaller boutique cruises.
Do you need a guide?
Visiting with a licensed guide
Sometimes worth it and sometimes not, and it depends on the site rather than on the day. The guide answers that question site by site.
Families with children
Coming with children
Heat, stairs, tomb corridors and attention spans, treated as the practical problems they are rather than as a warning.
Photography
Photographing Luxor
Where the light is at which hour, what is respectful, and why this site publishes no photography rule it has not checked.
Itineraries
Leaving the city
Four days on both banks before a river journey towards Aswan. Confirm the actual boarding point and route with the operator.
Between site visits
Take a break by the Nile
A short walk along the east-bank corniche leaves room to enjoy the river and the city between visits.
Choose your stretch
Start near where you’re staying. Agree a turnaround point with your companions and allow time for the walk back. Before setting out, ask locally about pavements, road crossings and places to rest.
Pause and look
Watch the crossings, moored boats and the places where the city meets the water. Ask before photographing people or their work.