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Luxor Temple stands on the east bank of the Nile in the center of modern Luxor — not outside the city but underneath it, with streets, houses, and a functioning mosque (Abu Haggag) built directly over its courts and walls. The temple was the principal venue for the Opet Festival, the annual celebration in which the divine power of kingship was renewed by transporting the sacred barque of Amun from Karnak to this temple in a procession along the Avenue of Sphinxes.
The core of the temple was built by Amenhotep III (r. 1390–1352 BCE), who constructed the colonnade hall with its 14 papyrus-bud columns and the inner sanctuary complex. Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BCE) added the massive First Pylon — originally flanked by six colossal statues of the king, four seated and two standing — and the open peristyle court. In front of the pylon once stood two obelisks: one remains in place; the other was removed to Paris in 1836 and now stands in the Place de la Concorde. The pylon faces are decorated with Ramesses's account of the Battle of Kadesh, one of the most extensively depicted military engagements in ancient art.
The Roman emperor Diocletian converted the innermost sanctuary into a shrine for the imperial cult in the late 3rd century CE, and the wall paintings visible today in this room — showing Roman emperors in ritual postures — are unique in Egypt. A Christian church was built in the southwest corner of the first court, later replaced by the Abu Haggag mosque. The mosque sits some 6 metres above the original temple floor on accumulated debris — a physical stratigraphy of 2,000 years of religious continuity on a single spot.
The Avenue of Sphinxes connecting Luxor Temple to Karnak — originally lined with 1,350 human-headed sphinxes over a 3-kilometre distance — was largely excavated between 2010 and 2021. The southern section, running from the First Pylon into the city, has been cleared and partially restored, with the sphinxes set back in their original alignment and lit at night.
