What to do in Luxor, Egypt

Egypt, you have stolen my heart. I know that my Egyptian tour will be one of those adventures I look back on when I’m 90 and say, “That. That was one of the best times of my life.”

As I’ll always say, step off the beaten path and explore the lesser-known cities. I took a sleeper train down to Aswan and a felucca up the Nile to Luxor. Both of those are stories for another time. Luxor is (in my opinion) the most beautiful city in Egypt. Additionally, it houses much of the world’s ancient history.

When staying in Luxor (I stayed at the Steigenberger Hotel), you are close to Karnak and Luxor Temple. In November 2021, the magnificent Avenue of Sphinxes opened between these two brilliant temples.

I was lucky enough to walk the Avenue the first day it was opened to the public. Fun tidbit: I watched the opening ceremony from an Irish pub in Luxor on American Thanksgiving – because it is my life goal always to visit an Irish pub when I visit a new country.

Karnak Temple

Karnak Temple is the largest and most complex religious site of Ancient Egypt. It was built over a period of 1,000 years. The most iconic and sought-after views in the temple are The Great Columns. There are 134 ornate pillars that reach over 20 meters high.

Remember Ramses? Like Ramses and Moses? In his classical egotistical fashion, he spent a lot of his time having people carve his name over, and over, and over, and over, and over again into these pillars. Just in case we didn't get the point.

Moral of the story is: if you want to see the best temple in Egypt – its Karnak Temple.

Avenue of Sphinxes

As I said earlier, I was incredibly fortunate to be in Luxor for the grand opening of the Avenue of Sphinxes. The Avenue is a 1.7 mile stretch of sphinx along either side of an ancient road connecting Luxor and Karnak Temples. It had been under excavation for 50 years before its November 2021 grand opening. I am so fortunate to have arrived in Luxor the day it opened, or I would have genuinely missed out on an iconic sight. If you can only see one end of the Avenue, choose the Luxor side. The Luxor side has the complete sphinxes.

Luxor Temple

I didn't expect the amount of Greek influence in upper Egypt. As an extremely proud Greek-American, it takes me a while to admit when we Greeks messed up – and we messed up in Egypt. Greeks were notoriously bad at recreating Egyptian temples. It's honestly embarrassing. Luxor Temple is gorgeous, but Alexander the Great made some, shall we say, compromising hieroglyphics of himself in that temple that I'm not sure he would be happy to know lasted thousands of years. 

That being said, it's a beautiful temple from 1400 B.C. and is hugely accessible to downtown Luxor. Seriously, it is smack dab in the middle of town. You can walk outside your hotel and see ancient history.

And that is why Egypt is fantastic.