The Most Beautiful Places in Luxor
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Luxor are Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Kings and Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Luxor stands on the site of ancient Thebes, the religious capital of Egypt's New Kingdom, and the Nile here divides two worlds. On the east bank, where the sun rises, the city of the living built its great temples to Amun; on the west bank, facing the sunset, the pharaohs cut their tombs into the desert cliffs and raised memorial temples along the edge of the cultivated land. Few places on earth hold so much monumental architecture within a day's walk.
Karnak is the largest temple complex of ancient Egypt, enlarged by pharaoh after pharaoh for some two thousand years; its Great Hypostyle Hall is a forest of 134 papyrus columns. Luxor Temple, linked to Karnak by an avenue of sphinxes, still has one of its pair of obelisks in place; the other has stood in the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836.
Across the river, the Valley of the Kings holds the painted rock-cut tombs of New Kingdom rulers, Tutankhamun's among them. The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut climbs in three terraces against the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari, Medinet Habu keeps deep reliefs with much of their colour, and the two Colossi of Memnon, seated statues of Amenhotep III, are all that stands of his vanished temple.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colossi of Memnon | Sculpture | |
| 2 | Valley of the Kings | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 3 | Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut | Archaeological site | |
| 4 | Luxor Temple | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 5 | Karnak Temple Complex | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 6 | Medinet Habu | Temple |
01 Colossi of Memnon
Egypt · 4.6 km from Luxor25.721° N 32.611° E
MusikAnimal · CC BY-SA 4.0 These two seated figures — about 18 metres tall, roughly 720 tons of quartzite sandstone apiece — are nearly all that remains standing of what was once Egypt's largest mortuary temple, built for Amenhotep III around 1350 BC.
Did you know? The sides of the thrones are carved with reliefs of Hapi, the god of the Nile flood.
02 Valley of the Kings
Egypt · 6.5 km from Luxor25.740° N 32.602° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Freiheitsjunkie from Pixabay For nearly five centuries, from about 1539 to 1075 BC, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were buried not under pyramids but in tombs cut deep into a dry valley on the west bank of the Nile opposite Thebes, modern Luxor.
Did you know? Tutankhamun's entrance stayed hidden partly because rubble from cutting the tomb of Ramesses V and VI, plus workmen's huts, was heaped right on top of it.
03 Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
Egypt · 6 km from Luxor25.738° N 32.607° E
Image by NinasCreativeCorner from Pixabay The mortuary temple of Hatshepsut rises in three broad terraces against the sheer limestone cliffs of Deir el-Bahari on the west bank at Luxor, and the setting is half of its beauty.
Did you know? Thutmose III's campaign against her images lasted only about two years before it was abandoned, leaving many figures intact.
04 Luxor Temple
Egypt · 1.1 km from Luxor25.700° N 32.639° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by DEZALB from Pixabay Luxor Temple rises on the east bank of the Nile in the middle of modern Luxor, ancient Thebes, and it is the one great temple of Egypt that sits inside a living town. The ancient Egyptians called it ipet resyt, the southern sanctuary.
Did you know? The obelisk still at the gate is the taller one; its shorter twin, now in Paris, stood on a higher base and further forward, so both looked equal.
05 Karnak Temple Complex
Egypt · 2.2 km from Luxor25.718° N 32.658° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by nadkol19 from Pixabay The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak is large enough that Notre-Dame Cathedral would fit inside its footprint, held up by 134 sandstone columns, with the twelve tallest running down the central nave at about 21 metres high and roughly 10 metres around — big enough that a handful of people can link arms around the base of…
Did you know? Hatshepsut's surviving obelisk, almost 30 metres tall, was the tallest in the world when raised; later kings walled it in to hide it from view.
06 Medinet Habu
Egypt · 5.4 km from Luxor25.720° N 32.601° E
Image by DEZALB from Pixabay Medinet Habu is the mortuary temple of Ramesses III, built on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor in the early twelfth century BC, and one of the best preserved temples of ancient Thebes.
Did you know? A list of kings carved for the Festival of Min shows ancestral royal statues carried in procession, naming nine pharaohs in 16 cartouches.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Luxor?
- On our list, Colossi of Memnon ranks first, followed by Valley of the Kings and Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.
- Is Luxor the same place as ancient Thebes?
- Yes. Modern Luxor grew over the east-bank part of ancient Thebes, which the Greeks called Thebes and the Egyptians Waset. The Theban necropolis on the west bank is part of the same ancient city.
- Why are the tombs on the west bank of the Nile?
- Egyptians linked the west, where the sun sets, with death and the afterlife. The temples of the living city stood on the east bank, and the tombs and memorial temples on the west.
- What is the Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor?
- It is a processional road almost three kilometres long that linked Karnak with Luxor Temple, lined with sphinx statues. It was used for the Opet festival, when the statues of the gods were carried between the two temples.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Luxor?
- In our collection, the places in Luxor are most often archaeological sites (5), temples (3), cemeteries (1) and sculptures (1).
- How many places are on this list in Luxor?
- The list covers 6 places.