Al Karnak is an Egyptian small village north of Luxor usually tourists perceive no distinction between Al Karnak and Luxor as they are parts of the same city. The Karnak Temple is the major attraction of the village. The Karnak temple is an open air musuem and is considered the second tourist attraction after the great pyramids of Giza. The Karnak temple complex is huge, covering a site almost a mile by two miles in area. There are over 25 temples and chapels in the complex, including separate shrines for the three boats that took the statues of the gods on their annual trip on the flooding Nile. Sanctuaries, obelisks, and groups of columns all feature accounts of the heroic deeds of the sponsoring pharoah. The temple consists of a main area the precinct of Amun Re and other fewer temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls. There are several avenues of Shpinxes statues connecting the different zones of the temple as well as with the Luxor temple. 30 Pharaohs contributed to the construction of the Karnak temple resulting in a unique architecture not seen any where. The most spectacular of the temples at Karnak is the Temple of Amun (Amun’s Precinct), the only section open to the public. This is entered via the Avenue of the Sphinxes. The whole complex was built over a period of 1300 years, beginning in the 16th century BC, and includes several of the finest examples of ancient Egyptian design and architecture. Among them are the Hypostyle Hall, considered one of the world’s great architectural achievements. It is filled with 134 enormous pillars, the highest 70 feet tall, and each about 45 feet around. The whole thing covers 64,586 sq ft. The Obelisk of Thutmose I, a 22m (71ft) monument, is the only one of four original obelisks that is still standing.

Built mainly by amenhoteb II and Ramses II. The temple was the focal point for rituals and festivals. The temple has great pylon with carved episodes from the battle of kadesh when Ramses defeated the Hethisi. In the temple there is the twin Obelisk of the one present at the Concord square in Paris. Luxor Temple is huge in scale — it once housed a village within its walls. It has several pylons (monumental gateways) that are some 70 yards long. The first pylon is over 70 feet high, fronted by massive statues and several obelisks. There are several open areas, once used for various forms of worship but now empty. Later additions include a shrine to Alexander the Great, a Roman sanctuary, and an Islamic shrine to a 13th-century holy man Abu El Hagag.

The Valley of the Kings is the place where the kings and the powerful nobles of the new kingdom built there tombs in where the king's formal names and titles are inscribed in his tomb along with his images and statues. Beginning with the 18th Dynasty and ending with the 20th, the kings abandoned the Memphis area and built their tombs in Thebes. Also abandoned were the pyramid style tombs. Most of the tombs were cut into the limestone following a similar pattern: three corridors, an antechamber and a sunken sarcophagus chamber. These catacombs were hard to rob and easily concealed. the area has been a site for archeological and egyptological explorations. The famous tomb of king Tut Ankh Amun was discovered there. It is said that the curse of the Pharaohs started from this tomb. In 1979 the valley of the Kings along with the Theben Necropolis became a world heritage.

The Valley of the Queens, is a place in Egypt where wives of Pharaohs were buried in ancient times. In ancient times, it was known as Ta-Set-Neferu, meaning –‘the place of the Children of the Pharaoh’, because along with the Queens of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties (1550–1070 BCE) many princes and princesses were also buried with various members of the nobility. The tombs of these individuals were maintained by mortuary priests whom performed daily rituals and provided offerings and prayers for the deceased nobility. The valley is located near the better known Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile across from Thebes (modern Luxor) . This barren area in the western hills was chosen due to its relative isolation and proximity to the capital. The kings of the 18th dynasty, instead of the traditional building of pyramids as burial chambers (perhaps because of their vulnerability to tomb robbers), now chose to be buried in rock-cut tombs. This necropolis is said to hold more than seventy tombs, many of which are stylish and lavishly decorated. An example of this is the resting place carved out of the rock for Queen Nefertari (1290–1224 BCE) of the 19th Dynasty. The polychrome reliefs in her tomb are still intact.

These are two statues of Amenhoteb III built of single sand stone that measured 20 meters high. The colossi used to guard the mortuary temple of Amenhoteb. Successive inundation gnawed away the foundations of the temple and only the colossi remains.

This temple was built by Queen Hatshepsut to perform the rites of the nether world. In the Deir el-Bahari a fairly recent nomenclature from the 7th century B.C. when the Copts used it as a monastery. The Temple is composed of three impressive rising terraces, split by a road. A tree lined avenue of sphinxes led up to the temple, and ramps led from terrace to terrace. The porticoes on the lowest terrace are out of proportion and coloring with the rest of the building. They were restored in 1906 to protect the celebrated relief’s depicting the transport of obelisks to Karnak and the birth of Queen Hatshepsut.

Medinet Habu is the Arabic name for the Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, a huge complex second only to Karnak in size and better preserved. Medinet Habu is among the least visited of the major sights at Luxor, but it deserves more attention than it gets. Medinet Habu was first excavated sporadically between 1859 and 1899 by the Egyptian Antiquities Service, during which the main temple was cleared, The name "Ramesseum" – or at least its French form, Rhamesséion – was coined by Jean-François Champollion, who visited the ruins of the site in 1829 and first identified the hieroglyphs making up Ramses' names and titles on the walls.

The Valley of the Nobles is not often visited by tourists -- they tend to flock to the Valley of the Kings and some manage a trip to the Valley of the Queens. There are hundreds of tombs in the Valley of the Nobles, although only a few are open. It is consisted of several valleys and not just one and contains some of the finest tombs that we saw -- unbelievably fine relief work and truly stunning painting decorate the tombs of governors, viziers, and priests.

The Valley of the Workers is the site of a complete village for the skilled craftsmen and laborers working on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and possibly even the Valley of the Nobles. Small, modest houses are packed against winding streets in this little valley, and the workers built and decorated their own tombs here. This is the necropolis of Deir el-Medina. Some of the tombs have small, steep-sided pyramids above them, and all are decorated. Only four are open, but the quality of work shows that these were skilled artists, and they put as much effort into the decoration of their small family tombs as they did for the glory of the pharaoh they worked for.

Built as a mortuary of Rameses ll who is also called Ramses the Great and reigned for 67 years, its murals record the Battle of Kadesh. II. It is a romantic ruin. The original structure is not evident while you are walking around the site. More recent excavations have discovered an adjacent palace connected to the 1st Court and another small temple connected to the 3rd court, which is believed to be dedicated to the mother of Ramesses.