Things to Do in Luxor, Egypt

Quick facts: Construction lasting nearly two thousand years produced a single sanctuary complex shaped by more than thirty pharaohs. In the hypostyle hall, 134 colossal stone columns stand, the largest 23 meters tall and nearly 15 meters in circumference.

Highlights: The main hall is large enough that Rome's St. Peter's Basilica and Paris's Notre-Dame could both fit inside at the same time. Morning sunlight streaming through the tall column openings colors the surface of the 23-meter columns deep orange-red, as if the stone itself were alive.

Quick facts: The architectural enterprise directed by Ramses is only part of what stands today, because Alexander the Great, the Romans, and the Mamluk sultans all added to the complex. At sunset, the entire facade glows in a golden rose color, while the row of sphinxes leads you from the entrance to the main courtyard.

Highlights: On the stones they show the spot where a certain archaeologist found a painted wall in 1882 that preserved the original colors of the temple walls. Most visitors walk right past it, yet if you stand in the central courtyard in the evening light, you can almost see the priests filing between the two obelisks of Amenhotep III before your eyes.

Quick facts: Tombs of more than 60 pharaohs and royal figures are carved into the bare cliffs, but only Tutankhamun's tomb was found completely intact, with more than 5,000 treasures inside. The largest complex, KV5, opens into over 120 chambers, and researchers believe further tombs may still lie hidden beneath the valley.

Highlights: In Tutankhamun's tomb, visitors can enter the chamber where Howard Carter found the golden mask, and the frescoes on its walls still glow in vivid colors after 3,000 years. The entrances to the tombs open at the end of stepped corridors carved into the hillside, where the cool air and the scenes from the Book of the Dead almost carry you back in time.

Quick facts: Around 90 tombs of queens and royal children lie here, including the stunning burial site of Nefertari, wife of Ramesses the Great. The colors on the tomb chamber walls have survived so vividly that many people think they were recently restored.

Highlights: The ceiling of Nefertari's tomb (QV66) is covered with golden stars that shine against a jet-black background, as if you were looking at a real night sky. The wall paintings are so detailed that researchers are still deciphering new rows of hieroglyphs along the 18-meter-long corridors to this day.

Quick facts: The rock-cut facade of the terraced temple rising on three levels is more than 97 meters wide, and the limestone cliffs towering behind it embrace it on all sides. The 3,500-year-old structure was the burial center of the only powerful female pharaoh in Egyptian history.

Highlights: It is the burial place of a female ruler who held a royal title but wanted to be recognized as a man, so she had herself depicted with a beard and pharaonic regalia. Among the reliefs adorning the walls, you can find the depiction of the Punt expedition, which shows in life-size images the ships laden with frankincense trees and the inhabitants of distant lands.

Quick facts: Two colossal stone statues guard the site, each 18 meters tall and weighing about 720 tons, at the entrance to the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Of the statues raised in the 14th century BC, the northern one used to emit a strange, singing sound at dawn, which the Greeks called the song of Memnon.

Highlights: After the earthquake of AD 27, one of the statues made a hissing, weeping sound at dawn, which Roman tourists listened to for hours in reverence. The sound was caused by the morning dew flowing through the cracks, and it continued until the restoration of AD 199, when the imperial repair silenced it forever.

Quick facts: The collection features only a few hundred objects, but every single one is of outstanding quality, which is why it is considered one of the best small museums in the world. The exhibition showcases the masterpieces of the age of the pharaohs in a modern museum layout with excellent lighting, something that can hardly be found anywhere else in Egypt.

Highlights: The biggest sensation is the two royal mummies from Tutankhamun's tomb, which were brought here in 2019 and can now be viewed in a separate hall in climate-controlled glass cases. The other wonder of the museum is the crocodile hall statues from the reign of Amenhotep III, which were found in the twentieth century in a single hiding place preserved in flawless condition.

Quick facts: Here more than 150 mummies and animal remains are preserved, including crocodiles that were offered to Sobek, the god of fertility. The collection also displays the royal mummy from the tomb of the former high priest Masaharta, which is still in a stunning state of preservation.

Highlights: The most striking sight is the mummy of a young man who was buried with a wide smile, his face preserving that expression for more than three thousand years. In one part of the exhibition, the entire embalming process is shown with real tools, clay vessels, and original fabric remnants, so you can almost see the priests at work before your eyes.

Quick facts: Shelley's English sonnet "Ozymandias" was inspired by the giant colossus lying fallen on the courtyard floor, which depicted Ramses II. The colossus was once about 19 meters tall and nearly 1,000 tons, with the head alone measuring 2.5 meters.

Highlights: The colossus's head, about 2.5 meters tall and 7 tons, still lies fallen on the ground, and Shelley used this head as the muse for his sonnet. The astronomical ceiling ornament depicts the sky goddess Nut, and after almost 3,000 years it remains completely intact.