Luxor Temple
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Ancient Thebes With Its Necropolis (1979). A Temple To The Theban Triad Begun By Amenhotep III And Finished By Ramses II, Standing In The Middle Of The Modern Town, Floodlit After Dark, With A Thirteenth Century Mosque Built Into Its Buried Court And An Obelisk Whose Twin Stands In The Place De La Concorde · Luxor, Luxor
Luxor Temple stands in the middle of the modern town rather than outside it, which is most of its character: a Ptolemaic and New Kingdom temple with traffic on two sides, reached on foot from the corniche hotels, and the only major site in Egypt that is genuinely better after dark. Amenhotep III built the core of it, Ramses II added the pylon, the colossi and the obelisks, Alexander added a chapel, the Romans built a fort around it and a mosque was put up inside the buried court in the thirteenth century - which is still there, now sitting several metres above the excavated floor, because nobody was willing to pull down a working mosque to dig. One of Ramses' obelisks is here and its twin is in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The Avenue of Sphinxes runs north from the entrance towards Karnak, three kilometres away, excavated out from under the town in recent years. It is also the one great Egyptian monument you can decide to visit on a whim, after dinner, without arranging a car.
On the east bank corniche in the middle of modern Luxor, at the south end of the Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor, Luxor, Egypt
Open daily from early morning until late in the evening, which is unusual in Egypt and the whole point of this site - the floodlighting is excellent and the temple empties of coach groups after dark. Winter closes earlier than summer and Ramadan shifts the hours, so confirm the evening closing before planning a night visit. Whether the excavated Avenue of Sphinxes can be walked all the way to Karnak has changed since the restoration, so ask rather than setting off on foot. The Abu Haggag mosque inside the court is a working mosque and is not entered from the temple. Tickets are sold at the corniche entrance, and the site is a flat ten-minute walk from most east bank hotels - no taxi needed, which is also unusual here.