Temple of Hatshepsut

How to visit without wasting the morning

The thing to get right here isn’t the ticket — at about E£200 (£3) it’s the cheapest headline site on the West Bank — it’s the timing and how you combine it. Don’t try to do the temple as a standalone errand: book a guide-and-driver West Bank morning (or a tour that bundles it) and slot Hatshepsut in straight after the Valley of the Kings, both done at the 06:00 opening. The terraces face east and have almost no shade, so by mid-morning you’re sharing the ramp with coach groups in real heat. Pay at the gate (card-only at the office, like most Luxor sites), take the little electric tram up from the car park, and you’re at the foot of the colonnade in minutes.

A scenic bookend, not a day in itself

Go first thing, slotting it in straight after the Valley of the Kings on the same West Bank morning, because the east-facing cliffs glow in the early light and the coach groups build fast once the heat does. Allow 45 minutes to an hour, no more: the three-tiered temple against the Deir el-Bahari cliffs is one of Luxor’s defining images and properly dramatic on the approach, but there’s little to see once you’re inside, and people who arrive expecting a Karnak-sized wander leave underwhelmed.

It’s worth the short stop and the £3, but treat it as the scenic bookend to a West Bank tomb morning rather than a sight you build a day around. Pair it with the Valley of the Kings and, if you’ve the energy, the Valley of the Queens or a dawn hot-air balloon over the same necropolis — that floating view of Hatshepsut’s terraces from above is the better photo anyway.