The hook
Built over ancient Thebes, the capital of pharaonic Egypt at its height, a place often called the world's greatest open-air museum, where colossal temples line one bank of the Nile and the tombs of kings honeycomb the hills on the other.
01Why it's worth it
Nowhere concentrates ancient Egypt like Luxor. On the east bank stand two of the greatest temple complexes ever built: Karnak, an immense sprawl of pylons, obelisks, and a forest of gigantic carved columns raised over two thousand years by successive pharaohs, and the elegant Luxor Temple in the heart of town. Across the Nile, on the west bank of the dead, lie the Valley of the Kings, where pharaohs including Tutankhamun were buried in painted rock-cut tombs still vivid with colour, the Valley of the Queens, the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut cut into a cliff, and the towering Colossi of Memnon. The density and grandeur are staggering, and floating over it all in a dawn hot-air balloon has become a classic. It is hot, busy, and hard on the feet, but for anyone drawn to the ancient world, it is close to overwhelming in the best way.
02How to experience it
Split it by bank: temples (Karnak, Luxor) on the east, tombs (Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut) on the west, doing each at opening to beat heat and crowds. Consider a dawn balloon flight over the whole west bank. Sail a felucca on the Nile between them, and give it two days rather than one.
From the locals
Luxor is the anchor of nearly every Egypt itinerary posted to r/travel, and the advice that repeats is about how you get there and what you do next. One traveller who spent a month in the country routed it by rail and warned that the system does not work the way you expect: take the "morning train to Luxor (just get on and buy tickets, they won't sell them to you anywhere except on the train)."
The same account treats Luxor as a base rather than a destination — the day that stayed with them was north of here, at Dendera. Two days on the two banks is the floor; the temples up and down the valley are what the extra days are for.