Photo : The original uploader was Hotepibre at Italian Wikipedia . — CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
Luxor · Corniche
Luxor after dark
The temple stands floodlit gold at the roadside, and people sit out on the Corniche until late.
Once the sun is down the heat lets go and the town comes out. Luxor Temple stays lit at the edge of the Corniche: its columns turn gold and can be seen from the pavement, without a ticket, over the fence. The river becomes a line of cruise boats moored side by side, every one of them illuminated, and the horse carriages shuttle between the hotels and the souk street, which runs parallel to the Corniche a block inland. This is also the hour for sitting on the Corniche benches with a glass of tea, facing a west bank gone black.
The extra bit
Walk north from the temple along the Corniche, the water on your left, then come back through the souk street: the loop takes an hour and returns you to where you started. The souk shops stay open as long as people keep walking past.
Know before you go
The Corniche is busy in the evening, but the streets behind the souk empty out quickly and are poorly lit: come back along the Corniche. Souk prices are haggling prices — say what you want to pay and let the first answer go by. The public ferry keeps crossing after dark, but the time of the last one changes with the season: ask at the landing stage before you go over to the other bank. Apart from the tea and whatever you buy, nothing here costs anything.
