4 Best Sights in Luxor and the Nile Valley, Egypt

One of the world's largest religious sites, Karnak is not just one temple but a giant complex of massive story-telling pylons; a huge hypostyle hall that's a forest of columns; and a scattering of seemingly countless temples, chapels, and obelisks. Some 30 pharaohs—as well as the Greek Ptolemies and early Christians—stamped their style and erased past names from Karnak over thousands of years, resulting in a hodgepodge of structures and designs. As a rule, the farther you walk into the complex, the more ancient the constructions.

Karnak is divided into three precincts dedicated to important gods of ancient Thebes—Amun-Ra, Mut, and Montu—but the Precinct of Amun-Ra is the only area that's fully open for visitors. Fortunately, it's also the most fascinating. 

Although you can access Karnak from the Avenue of Sphinxes, its main entry is via the Avenue of Ram-Headed Sphinxes, which leads to the Precinct of Amun-Ra, the major part of the Karnak. The First Pylon was actually the last one built and was left unfinished by the pharaohs of the 30th Dynasty. Walk through the pylon and spot the remains of the ancient mud-brick ramp used to build it.

In the Great Forecourt, a solitary 69-foot-tall column with an open papyrus capital is all that remains of the Kiosk of Taharqa (690–664 BC), an Ethiopian pharaoh of the 25th Dynasty. The small temple to the left of the forecourt entrance is the Shrine of Seti II (19th Dynasty), which has three small chapels that stored the sacred barques (boats) for the gods during the Opet processions and are depicted on the walls. In the southeast portion of the Great Forecourt, two colossi representing the king front the Temple of Ramses III (20th Dynasty), which follows the standard New Kingdom design of pylon: the open-air courtyard has arms-crossed statues in the form of Osiris (god of the afterlife), and a hypostyle hall. Like the wider Karnak temple complex, this temple has three chapels for each god of the Theban Triad.

Constructed during the reign of Horemheb (18th Dynasty), the Second Pylon was built with blocks recycled from dismantled monuments from Akhenaten, who changed the state religion and was seen as a heretic. The blocks were usurped and reused again by Ramses I and Ramses II.

The second pylon opens onto the Great Hypostyle Hall, a towering forest of 134 columns in 16 rows. The tallest reach nearly 80 feet into the sky, but originally this hall had a roof. The colors and hieroglyphs are remarkable. The 12 columns alongside the processional way have open-papyrus capitals, while the other columns have papyrus-bud capitals and are smaller. The New Kingdom pharaoh Seti I built much of the elaborate hall, and it was completed by his son, Ramses II.

Amenhotep III (18th Dynasty) constructed the Third Pylon, which leads to a handful of obelisks, including the 70-foot-tall Obelisk of Thutmose I (18th Dynasty) and, past the Fourth Pylon, the Obelisk of Hatshepsut. The lower part of her obelisk is well preserved because Thutmose III, Hatshepsut's stepson and successor, encased it within a brick wall, probably not to preserve it but to hide its presence.

Beyond the Fifth Pylon and Sixth Pylon, look for the two Pillars of Thutmose III carved with papyrus and lotus plants representing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. Nearby are elegant statues of the gods Amun-Ra and Amunet, carved during the reign of Tutankhamun. Philip III Arrhidaeus, the half-brother and successor of Alexander the Great, built a red granite Sanctuary on the site of an earlier temple destroyed by the Persians. 

At the end of Karnak's east–west axis is the Festival Hall of Thutmose III, erected to commemorate the pharaoh's military campaigns in Asia. The unusual columns are representations of tent poles used when traveling to battle. Behind the hall is the "botanical garden," a vestibule with reliefs showing plants and animals that the pharaoh brought back from his expeditions. Spot the graffiti that indicates that this hall was later used as a church.

Several monuments and courtyards also run along Karnak's north–south axis, which begins between the third and fourth pylons. The Cachette Court, at the northernmost part of the axis, was so named because of the thousands of statues and bronzes found in it in 1903. To the south lie the seventh through tenth pylons, separated by courtyards. Archaeological work continues in this area, and not all locations are accessible. A path continues southbound outside the Precinct of Amun to the Avenue of Sphinxes, which links to Luxor Temple. 

The Sacred Lake is near the Cachette Court, and it's where priests purified themselves before rituals and where you can take a break in the waterside café. At the northwest corner of the lake, a large scarab statue dates from the reign of Amenhotep III. Farther to the northwest lie the fallen remains of the other Obelisk of Hatshepsut (its partner is back between the fourth and fifth pylons).

Karnak is home to plenty more temples, chapels, and pylons that are less visited but still impressive. The Open-Air Museum north of the First Pylon contains the small Chapel of Senusret I, which dates from 1971 BC but was dismantled by Amenhotep III and used to fill the Third Pylon about 600 years later. The chapel contains high-quality reliefs that show the pharaoh being crowned and the deities of provinces around Egypt. The nearby Red Chapel of Hatshepsut was used to keep sacred boats for festivals.

Karnak has a Sound and Light Show (LE300) that includes a walk through the gradually lit complex, ending at the sacred lake, where you take a seat and the second part begins. For the steep ticket price, the display gets mixed reviews and feels outdated.

One of Egypt's best museums outside of Cairo houses a bounty of statuary, with a particularly great selection from the New Kingdom, over several floors. The displays have thorough descriptions, a rare find in Egypt. Many of the pieces were unearthed around Deir el-Bahri, the area just across the Nile from the museum that includes the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.

The ground floor has several masterpieces from the New Kingdom, including carvings of Thutmose III and crocodile-headed Sobek giving life to Amenhotep III. A newer wing, called Glory of Thebes' Military and Technology Gallery, showcases the royal mummies of Ramses I and Ahmose I in darkened rooms along with New Kingdom chariots and weapons of war on two levels.

On the upper floor, look for carved stones from Amenhotep IV's temple at Karnak before the pharaoh changed his name to Akhenaten, created a new monotheistic religion—the world's first—and moved the capital from Thebes to his new city of Tell el-Amarna. The stone blocks were discovered inside Karnak's Ninth Pylon in the 1960s, reused there by later rulers attempting to erase the "heretic" pharaoh's legacy. Other artifacts include ushabti (small servant statues), a wooden model boat from King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, tombstones from the Christian era, and Islamic-period pottery.

Near the museum entrance is the Cachette Gallery, which shows New Kingdom statues unearthed from Luxor Temple in 1989, hidden to protect them from destruction by later rulers.

An astounding contrast with the modern city right outside its gate, Luxor Temple is a mostly New Kingdom construction started around 1390 BC. The temple was the southern counterpart to the temples of Karnak. During the annual Opet festival, statues of the gods were paraded down the Avenue of Sphinxes from Karnak to Luxor. For nearly 35 centuries, this religious complex has been a place of worship—from the ancient Egyptian pantheon to the mosque built into the temple's foundations that is open to the local community.

Like Karnak, Luxor Temple was adapted and expanded over millennia. Likely built over a Middle Kingdom predecessor, the largely 18th-Dynasty temple was developed by Amenhotep III and expanded by Ramses II, Nectanebo I, Alexander the Great, and the Romans. The Romans transformed the area around the temple into a military camp, and after the 4th-century AD Christian ban on pagan cults, several churches were built inside the temple.

A towering obelisk and a series of seated and standing statues of Ramses II guard the 79-foot-tall First Pylon and entrance to the temple. Originally, it was a pair of obelisks, but Muhammad Ali Pasha, the ruler of Ottoman Egypt, gifted the other to the French in 1830, and it's still in Paris. The pylon shows war scenes from the Battle of Kadesh, a campaign that Ramses II waged against the Hittites in modern-day Syria.

Heading off in the other direction is the 3-km (2-mile) Avenue of Sphinxes that leads to the Karnak temple complex. Its full length was opened in 2021 to pedestrians for the first time in thousands of years, and you can walk to a "back door" entrance to Karnak after exploring Luxor Temple.

Beyond the First Pylon lies the Court of Ramses II, encircled with a double row of papyrus-bud columns. Wall carvings show the pharaoh making offerings to the gods, as well as a list of some of his sons' names and titles. To the right of the entrance is a triple shrine built by Hatshepsut but taken over by her stepson successor, Thutmose III, who took credit for the monument by removing her cartouches and writing in his own. The shrine is dedicated to the Theban Triad: Amun-Ra in the middle, Mut on the left, and Khonsu on the right. To the left of the court entrance, well above the temple's floor level, is the still-open Mosque of Abu al-Haggag, built atop a Christian church. Al-Haggag was a holy man from Baghdad who died in Luxor in AD 1245.

The Colonnade of Amenhotep III consists of two rows of seven columns with papyrus-bud capitals. The wall decoration, completed by Amenhotep's successors, illustrates the voyage of the statue of the god Amun-Ra from Karnak to Luxor Temple during the Opet festival. On each side of the central walk are statues of Amun-Ra and Mut, carved during the reign of Tutankhamun, which Ramses II later usurped.

The colonnade leads to the Court of Amenhotep III, where a cachette of statues hidden by the Romans was found in 1989; it's now on display in the Luxor Museum. Double rows of remarkably elegant columns with papyrus-bud capitals flank this peristyle court on three sides. A Hypostyle Hall with even more columns lies to the south. Between the last two columns on the left as you walk to the back of the temple is a Roman altar dedicated to the Emperor Constantine.

South of the hypostyle hall are chapels dedicated to Mut and Khonsu. The first antechamber originally had eight columns, but they were removed during the 4th century AD to convert the space into a Christian church. The Romans plastered over the ancient Egyptian carvings, but one still intact scene shows an entourage of Roman officials awaiting the emperor.

Behind the chapels is the Offering Hall, with access to the inner sanctuary. On the east side, a doorway leads to the mammisi (chapel showing divine birth), used to prove that Amenhotep III was the son of the god Amun-Ra and to strengthen the pharaoh's position as absolute ruler. The symbolic birth scenes are spread over three registers on the left wall, showing goddesses suckling children, the pharaoh's birth in front of several gods, and Hathor (the goddess of motherhood) presenting the infant to Amun-Ra.

Seti I initiated construction of this temple complex but died before its completion, which left his son, Ramses II, to finish it. Today it remains one of the most fascinating temples in Egypt because of its exquisite reliefs, unique chapel design, and preserved paint.

To reach the temple, walk up a ramp through two mostly destroyed courtyards built by Ramses II. The temple's facade features a carved and partially painted Portico, half a modern reconstruction, with scenes of Ramses II making offerings to the gods. Inside the central door is the First Hypostyle Hall, which has 12 pairs of sandstone columns with papyrus-bud capitals. Unlike many temples, the roof is in situ, giving the space a dark, mysterious atmosphere. The column placement creates seven aisles that lead to seven sanctuaries set in the back wall of the second hypostyle hall. The walls are carved with images of Seti I making offerings to Amun-Ra, the creator god, and preparing and dedicating the temple building.

Seti I almost completed the decoration of the Second Hypostyle Hall, and the exquisite quality of these reliefs stands in stark contrast to the cruder work commissioned later by Ramses II. The Seven Sanctuaries at the back of the hall are rare features in Egyptian temples. They are dedicated to Horus, Isis, Osiris, Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah, and the deified Seti I, and each is decorated with scenes of the king making offerings to the gods and the gods giving symbols of life and kingship in return. Osiris's sanctuary is the most impressive and leads to two further halls and chapels for Isis (his wife) and Horus (his son).

The relationship between Osiris and Isis is seen in more graphic detail east of the sanctuaries, where a chamber has a scene of the conception of Horus. The story goes that Isis flew around Egypt to gather all the pieces of Osiris but was missing one—we'll let you guess which. She fashioned one for Osiris, added a bit of magic, and conceived Horus.

Along the corridor away from the sanctuaries, the Gallery of Ancestors contains the Abydos Kings List, an important table that records the previous 76 kings of ancient Egypt being read out by the future Ramses II as he is watched over by his father Seti I. These rows of cartouches are the only source of the order and names of some Old Kingdom pharaohs, though it does rewrite history by not including rulers considered illegitimate, including Hatshepsut and Akhenaten.

An upward sloping interior corridor has a scene of a young Ramses II and his pharaoh father lassoing a bull and then offering it as a sacrifice to the gods. This corridor leads outside to the sunken Osireion, which is off-limits to visitors and can only be viewed from above, which precludes getting a good look at the reliefs. This sandstone and granite monument was thought to be the tomb of Osiris. Its architectural style is reminiscent of Old Kingdom construction, but it was actually built by Seti I.

Just northwest of Seti I's temple lies the Temple of Ramses II (1279–1213 BC). Its roof and most of the upper portions of its walls are missing, but enough of it remains to give a feeling of its layout and decoration. What's left of the decoration shows that this temple—unlike the inferior work that Ramses commissioned to complete his father's temple—is close in style and quality to the work done during the reign of Seti I, and the walls retain some vibrant reds, yellows, and greens.