Luxor is the departure point and essential port of call for several Nile Cruises. No less than 17 luxury Travcotels vessels depart from or visit Luxor as part of an extensive Nile cruise itinerary. The Travcotels Cruise Fleet is a self contained world of luxury with intelligent ship design and layout. Planned itineraries and excursions can take you across the land from Luxor to Aswan and beyond the dam right to the doorstep of many of the world’s most impressive and mysterious monuments of the Pharaonic civilization. You can tour the Valley of the Kings, the temples of Karnak, Luxor, Philae, Abu Simbel and Edfu knowing that in the evening you can return to your own floating Five-Star hotel.

The Nile is the life-giving force behind the unique civilization that sprang up along its banks. The Nile was, and still is, the vivifying heart of Egypt, and there is no better way to discover the mysteries and majesty of al Egypt has to offer than sailing the Nile in a well-appointed Four or Five Star Nile Cruise ship. Cruises can take in sunny southern Aswan or Low Nubia with their African spirit and colourful markets or provide Five-Star comfort on Lake Nasser where you can view the extraordinary Abu Simbel temples built for Ramses II and his beautiful wife Nefertari. With Nile cruises, you can take an inspiring trip into the fascinating past while enjoying luxurious comfort, safety and security on board one of the most modern and best equipped Nile Cruise fleets in Egypt.

Ancient Egypt

Luxor: City of The Living and City of The Dead

Luxor was originally just part of the ancient city of Thebes and remained an important seat of power from 2,100 B.C. to 750 B.C. It was Arab merchants and traders, impressed by its beautiful palaces and huge edifices, who coined the modern name Luxor - meaning “City of Palaces". The sheer concentration of relics in Luxor and the surrounding area is overwhelming. The town itself boasts the magnificent temple complexes at Luxor and Karnak. Across the river are the amazing tombs and mortuary temples of the Theban Necropolis and as if this array of well preserved archaeology wasn’t enough, Luxor also serves as a base for trips to Esna, Edfu, Dendara and Abydos as well as the tombs of the Valley of The Kings and the Valley of The Queens. Luxor’s East Bank is the City of the Living, housing the Temple complexes of Luxor and Karnak and the Museum. The part of Luxor on The West Bank of the Nile is the City of the Dead, where the Sun sets.

Luxor’s East Bank

Major monuments on Luxor's East Nile Bank include the Temple of Luxor itself. Built by the two pharaohs Amenhotep III and Ramses II, the temple was dedicated to Amun-Ra, whose marriage to Mut was celebrated with a sacred procession by boat from Karnak to Luxor every year. The Temple entrance has a huge pylon built by Ramses II and two seated statues of the king. Originally, two large obelisks also stood in front of the pylon, but one was looted by Napoleon and now stands in the Place de Ia Concorde, in Paris. The rest of the Temple was built by Amenhotep III and includes the Colonade, the Hypostyle Hall, the Sanctuary of the Sacred Boat and the Sanctuary of the Sacred Statue. The Temple Complex at Karnak includes many individual temples dedicated to Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu, the moon deity. The Karnak Temple complex also includes monuments contributed by Thutmosis I, Rameses III and Tuthmosis III. The Sacred Lake, used for purification, lies outside the main hall and dates back to Amenhotep

I. Many of the smaller relics and treasures found in these two temples can be seen at the Luxor Museum, situated between the Temples of Luxor and Karnak.

Luxor’s West Bank

The Colossi of Memnon are the only remains of a temple built for Amenhotep III. The ancient Greeks named the temple after Memnon, the legendary hero killed in the Trojan Wars. Almost 20 metres high, these statues have cracks and fissures that “sing” with the winds. The Greeks said this was Memnon’s mother Eos, the dawn goddess, wailing at his loss and shedding tears that could be seen as dewdrops on the statues each morning. The Tombs of the Valleys of the Kings and Queens are New Kingdom burial sites carved in the rock faces of the valley to safeguard them against tomb-raiders. The chief tombs of the Valley are those of Queen Nefertari, wife of Ramses II, Tutankhamen (Tut-Ankh-Amun), Ramses III, Seti I, Ramses VI, Amenhotep II, Hur-Moheb and Tuthmosis III.

The famous High Dam was considered to be an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. It contains around 18 times the volume of material used in the construction of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Almost two miles long and 364 feet tall, it provides irrigation and electricity for the whole of Egypt. Together with the old Aswan Dam built by the British between 1898 and 1902, it also affords visitors magnificent views across the 500 miles of Lake Nasser to Kalabsha temple in the south and the huge power station to the north.

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