What time of day to visit Luxor's temples and tombs

Start on the West Bank as early as you can and finish at Luxor Temple. Luxor's temple and tomb sites open at 6 AM. West Bank sites take last visitors at 4 PM in winter and Ramadan and 5 PM in summer, Karnak at 4 PM all year, and Luxor Temple at 7 PM, the latest in Luxor. Sunrise is for the balloon, evening for the Karnak show.

Luxor's sites by opening and last entry

From the antiquities ministry's ticketing portal, checked in August 2026. The portal gives each site a summer, a winter and a Ramadan season.

One mismatch: the ministry's monuments website lists the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut Temple as open 6 AM to 5 PM daily, which does not fit a 5 PM last entry in summer, so do not count on the later summer time. The ministry advises arriving at least one hour before a site's closing time.

Early morning: the balloon and the West Bank

The first option of the day is the hot-air balloon: pickup is before sunrise from your hotel or Nile cruise, a ferry takes you to the launch site on the West Bank, and the flight has views of the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Nile.

The West Bank sites open at 6 AM. In July, Luxor's average daily high is 41.4°C and its average low 24.7°C; in January, 23.0°C and 5.9°C. From May to September the average high is 39.0°C or more. Our Luxor tours that cross the river start there. The both-banks tour drives 14.9 km from the hotel to the Colossi of Memnon, about 18 minutes without traffic, then visits Hatshepsut Temple and the Valley of the Kings before lunch. The full West Bank tour takes the same three in the same order, then has lunch and continues to Medinet Habu and Deir el-Medina, the village of the craftsmen who built and decorated the royal tombs. The Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut tour is a West Bank morning on its own: 16.2 km from the hotel to the Valley of the Kings, about 26 minutes without traffic, then Hatshepsut Temple and a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon.

Midday and afternoon: lunch, then the East Bank

On our full Luxor days, lunch at a local restaurant comes between the morning sites and the later ones. The both-banks tour then drives to Karnak, 13.4 km from the Valley of the Kings, about 22 minutes without traffic, and ends at Luxor Temple, 3.2 km on. The tour from Aswan follows the same pattern and says so: you cross the Nile to the East Bank in the afternoon. Karnak comes before Luxor Temple on every tour that visits both, because its last entry is three hours earlier; Karnak or Luxor Temple explains the choice. For Karnak alone, Karnak Temple with a guide is a morning visit from your hotel or Nile cruise.

The Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum are morning visits: last entry is 12 PM in the summer season and 1 PM in winter. None of our tours includes them, but a guide-only booking in Luxor is for the sites and the hours you choose, so it can cover them, or the Ramesseum, the Tombs of the Nobles and the Valley of the Queens.

Evening: the Karnak show and Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple is open until 8 PM on the ministry's monuments website, with last entry at 7 PM. Karnak hosts the evening sound and light show: a walk past the lit columns of the hypostyle hall to the sacred lake, then a seated show of about 75 minutes on the story of ancient Thebes and Karnak.

How to spend a day in Luxor?

With one day, see the West Bank in the morning, have lunch, then Karnak and Luxor Temple in the afternoon, and add the Karnak show in the evening if you still have the energy. That is the order of our both-banks tour: the Colossi of Memnon, Hatshepsut Temple, the Valley of the Kings, an alabaster workshop, lunch, Karnak and Luxor Temple. The ticket for Tutankhamun's tomb is an optional extra on that tour, not included.

Day trips into Luxor from the Red Sea and from Cairo reverse the banks and start at Karnak: from Marsa Alam the tour drives 355 km to Karnak, about 4 h 11 min without traffic; from Hurghada (Luxor in a day from Hurghada) it drives 289.7 km, about 3 h 43 min without traffic; from Sharm El Sheikh and from Cairo (Luxor in a day from Cairo) the tours fly to Luxor, and the flights are not included in the tour price. Every Luxor tour is on the Luxor page.