Luxor Museum is a small, beautifully curated Egyptology museum on the east bank of the Nile in Luxor, opened in 1975. It is the polar opposite of Cairo’s giant collections: only the masterpieces, displayed with space around each piece, restrained lighting, and clear English labels. The collection focuses on Thebes (modern Luxor) and includes the cache of 26 royal statues unearthed in 1989 at Luxor Temple, the partial reconstruction of the Talatat wall from Akhenaten’s lost Karnak temple, and two royal mummies. Many travellers prefer it to the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir for a focused two-hour visit between Karnak and dinner.
The museum was conceived in the 1960s as a way to keep Luxor-area finds in Luxor rather than ship every important piece to Cairo. The building was designed by Egyptian architect Mahmoud el-Hakim and opened to the public in 1975, with display cases arranged in a calm two-storey layout that emphasises individual objects over crowded vitrines.
The collection grew through the 1980s and 1990s as new finds came from the Luxor temples and the West Bank tombs. In 1989 Egyptian archaeologists clearing the Sun Court of Luxor Temple uncovered a buried cache of 26 royal statues that had been hidden in antiquity, possibly during the political upheavals of the late New Kingdom. The cache included exceptional pieces of Amenhotep III, Horemheb, and several other 18th Dynasty pharaohs. Most of the cache moved to Luxor Museum, where the statues now anchor the upper-floor display.
In 2004 the museum opened a new wing for the Theban royal mummies. The wing displays the mummies of Ramses I (returned to Egypt in 2003 after a long detour through a Niagara Falls sideshow) and Ahmose I, the founder of the New Kingdom who expelled the Hyksos and founded the 18th Dynasty. A small gallery of mummified animals supplements the royal display.
The museum continues to receive new finds from ongoing excavation. The Akhenaten talatat wall in the lower gallery is partially reassembled from blocks recovered from inside Karnak’s Ninth Pylon, where Horemheb used them as rubble fill.
The Amenhotep III Statue Cache from Luxor Temple dominates the upper floor. The standout piece is a 2.5-metre quartzite statue of Amenhotep III in striding pose, almost flawlessly preserved after 3,300 years buried under the temple sand. The cache also includes pieces of Horemheb, the boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, and several deities.
The Talatat Wall is a partial reconstruction of the eastern wall of Akhenaten’s Gem-pa-Aten temple, the heretic pharaoh’s monument to the sun-disc Aten that once stood at Karnak. The wall uses small standardised talatat blocks (the word means three-handspans in Arabic) that Akhenaten’s masons invented to speed construction. After his death, Horemheb dismantled the temple and used the blocks as rubble fill inside his own Ninth Pylon at Karnak. Egyptian archaeologists removed thousands of blocks during 20th-century restoration and pieced together the reconstructed wall now on display.
The Royal Mummies of Ramses I and Ahmose I are in a separate climate-controlled wing. Ramses I founded the 19th Dynasty and was the grandfather of Ramses II. Ahmose I founded the 18th Dynasty around 1550 BCE and is the earliest royal mummy in the country.
Other masterpieces include a 2.3-metre granite statue of Tuthmosis III, the New Kingdom warrior-pharaoh; a finely carved alabaster figure of Sobek and Amenhotep III, one of the only known statues showing the crocodile-god in close embrace with a pharaoh; and a small selection of objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun that did not travel to the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Location: Corniche el-Nil, Luxor city centre, halfway between Luxor Temple and Karnak on the east bank.
Opening hours: 09:00 to 14:00 and 17:00 to 21:00 daily (afternoon break). Last entry around one hour before closing.
Entrance fee (2026, subject to change): Approximately 250 EGP (around $5 USD) for foreign-visitor adults, 125 EGP for students with international ID. Royal mummies wing requires a separate small supplement of around 60 EGP.
Photography: Permitted in most galleries without flash. Tripods need a separate permit. Photography is prohibited in the royal mummies wing.
Time needed: 1.5 to 2 hours for the main collection plus the mummies wing. Add 30 minutes if you read every label carefully.
Getting there: Walk along the corniche from Luxor Temple or any central Luxor hotel. Horse-drawn caleches park outside. Most Luxor day tours include the museum as a late-afternoon visit after the West Bank.
Accessibility: Lift access between floors. Wide aisles between displays. Wheelchair-friendly throughout. Toilets and a small café on the ground floor.
Visit in the early evening. The museum’s afternoon break ends at 17:00. Arriving at 17:30 gives you cool air, soft display lighting, and almost no other visitors after the day-tour groups have left.
Read the talatat wall labels carefully. The story of how Akhenaten’s temple was destroyed and the blocks reused is told piece by piece. Without context the wall is a curiosity, with context it is one of the most layered objects in Egyptian archaeology.
Pair the museum with the Mummification Museum. Both are on the corniche, both are small enough for a single afternoon, and together they cover the artistic and religious afterlife of New Kingdom Thebes.
Take advantage of the audio guide. The museum’s free audio guide app is one of the better implementations in Egypt. Bring headphones.
The museum is included on EDT’s longer Luxor itineraries when time allows. The three best options:
Every EDT Luxor tour includes private transport, entrance fees, bottled water, and a licensed Egyptologist guide.
What a contrast to Cairo. Luxor Museum is small but every piece is a masterpiece. The Amenhotep III statue alone was worth the visit.
Loved the Akhenaten talatat wall. The story of the blocks being recovered from inside Karnak was a revelation.
Quiet, well-lit, and beautifully curated. We came back twice during our four nights in Luxor.
Yes. Luxor Museum is much smaller and focuses on Theban finds, with several masterpieces (the Amenhotep III cache, the Akhenaten talatat wall, the royal mummies of Ramses I and Ahmose I) that do not exist anywhere else.
Plan 1.5 to 2 hours for the main collection plus the royal mummies wing. The museum is designed for slow, contemplative looking rather than a quick sweep.
The major Tutankhamun finds are now at the Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza. Luxor Museum holds a small selection of secondary pieces from his tomb plus a head from his statue cache.
Yes. Ramses I and Ahmose I are displayed in a separate climate-controlled wing. Photography is prohibited in this gallery out of respect for the remains.
Yes in most galleries without flash, with a paid tripod permit. Photography is prohibited in the royal mummies wing.
Like many Egyptian museums, Luxor Museum closes for several hours in the middle of the day and reopens in the evening. Current schedule is 09:00 to 14:00 morning, 17:00 to 21:00 evening.