Temple of Luxor

The Mosque Inside the Temple That Nobody Warned You About

You enter Luxor Temple expecting to walk through 3,400 years of ancient Egyptian history and you do – but partway through the complex, above the level of one of the old pharaonic buildings, there is an active mosque. The Abu Haggag Mosque sits on a platform that was once a Roman courtyard that was once a Christian church that was once an Egyptian sanctuary. The mosque has been there since the 13th century. When archaeologists cleared the accumulated debris from the temple complex in the 19th century, the mosque was simply too embedded to remove – its floor rests on fill that buried the temple itself. So it stayed. You can hear the call to prayer echoing through a space Ramesses II built to celebrate his own military victories. This is either a profound illustration of civilizational continuity or a very strange afternoon at an ancient monument, depending on your tolerance for conceptual dissonance.

The Luxor Temple was built primarily during the reign of Amenhotep III around 1400 BCE and expanded significantly by Ramesses II a century later. It was not a tomb and not exactly a conventional deity temple. It served the annual Opet festival, during which the statues of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu were transported from Karnak Temple 3 kilometres north in a procession down the Nile. The festival lasted weeks and its purpose was the ritual renewal of the pharaoh’s divine power – a kind of annual recertification of the right to rule.

The Things You Walk Past on the Way In

The entrance pylon of Ramesses II is 24 metres tall and was originally flanked by six colossal statues and two obelisks. One obelisk was given to France by Mohammed Ali in 1829 and now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The remaining obelisk in Luxor is 25 metres tall. The reliefs on the pylon depict the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE) against the Hittites, which Ramesses II described as a great victory. Most historians now consider it a draw at best. Ramesses was, among other things, the most prolific self-promoter in ancient history, so the discrepancy is not surprising.

The Avenue of Sphinxes connected Luxor Temple to Karnak 3 kilometres north. The full 2,700-metre processional way was only substantially excavated and completed in 2021, with sections passing under the modern city now cleared and accessible. You can now walk parts of this avenue between the two complexes, which is something almost no visitor could have done before very recently. This matters because the spatial relationship between Luxor and Karnak – the whole processional idea – becomes legible when you can actually traverse the connection.

Inside the Temple

The inner sanctuary was converted into a shrine for the Roman imperial cult; pharaonic reliefs were plastered over and decorated with Roman paintings, fragments of which still survive in the dim space. Walking into the sanctuary means passing from Egyptian to Roman without any formal announcement – one civilisation painted over the other’s walls and the layers remain.

In 2026, entry to Luxor Temple costs around $12-13 USD for foreign adult visitors. Most attractions in Egypt now require card payment rather than cash, which catches visitors off-guard. The temple is open from 6am with last entry at 7pm. Early morning entry – arriving at or just after opening – gives you an hour before the tour groups arrive and the heat builds. Summer temperatures in Luxor exceed 45 degrees Celsius; visiting between June and August is possible but requires early starts and serious hydration.

Karnak and the Luxor Museum

Karnak, 3 kilometres north, demands a full morning. The complex is one of the largest religious sites ever built: 100 hectares accumulated over 1,500 years as successive pharaohs added to what their predecessors built, each trying to outdo the last. The Hypostyle Hall – 134 columns, the tallest reaching 24 metres, every surface covered in hieroglyphic texts – is among the most overwhelming interior spaces in ancient architecture. It is difficult to photograph and impossible to adequately describe.

The Luxor Museum on the Corniche between the two temples is the best small museum in Egypt. Its 1989-excavated cache of Karnak statues, including an intact 18th-dynasty sequence, represents the highest quality ancient Egyptian sculpture you’re likely to see outside Cairo. Allow two hours and do not skip it to spend more time at the temples. The museum is quieter, air-conditioned, and the presentation is far better than the cluttered display in the Cairo museum.

Practical Notes

The nightly Sound and Light Show at Luxor Temple is optional and somewhat theatrical, but seeing the exterior lit at night with fewer visitors around has genuine appeal. Guides available at the entrance are worth hiring for the hieroglyphic content specifically; agree on a price before starting.

Getting to Luxor: overnight sleeper trains from Cairo take about 10 hours. Flights from Cairo take an hour. The temple is on the Corniche and walkable from most Luxor hotels.