Hotels near Karnak Temple

Karnak grew across nearly 2,000 years of pharaonic building campaigns from the Middle Kingdom through the Ptolemies. The complex covers about 1.5 square kilometres and is divided into the Precinct of Amun-Ra (open to visitors), the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Akhenaten. The Great Hypostyle Hall alone packs 134 columns onto a 5,000 square-metre floor, with the central twelve standing 21 metres tall. Look for the obelisks of Hatshepsut and Thutmose I, the Sacred Lake, and the partly reconstructed Avenue of Sphinxes that runs 2.7 km south to Luxor Temple. Tickets cost 700 EGP in 2026; gates open 6 AM to 5:30 PM (4:30 PM in winter). Allow 3 hours minimum.

Pro Tip: Enter at 6 AM with the Egyptologists rather than the 8 AM cruise crowd - photographers get the Hypostyle Hall in dawn light empty for the first 45 minutes.