Nile Valley

The Nile Valley between Luxor and Aswan unfolds over 200 km the most extraordinary concentration of ancient monuments in the world. It is here that from the New Kingdom (1550-1077 BC), the pharaohs abandoned the Giza pyramids to build the colossal temples of Karnak and Luxor, and to dig their tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, on the west bank of Thebes. Sixty-two pharaonic tombs have been found in the Valley of the Kings alone, including that of Tutankhamun discovered intact in 1922 by Howard Carter — the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century.

Luxor (ancient Thebes, capital of the New Kingdom) is today a city of 500,000 inhabitants divided by the Nile between the east bank (the living, with the temples of Karnak and Luxor) and the west bank (the dead, with the valleys of the Kings and Queens, the Colossi of Memnon, the funerary temples of Ramses II — the Ramesseum — and of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari). The temple of Karnak is the largest religious complex ever built (123 hectares, 134 columns 23 m high in the hypostyle hall); the temple of Luxor, more intimate, is connected to Karnak by an avenue of sphinxes recently restored and reopened in 2021.

The Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan (3 to 7 nights depending on the formula) is the emblematic experience of the region. The 4-5 star boats (30-80 cabins, international cuisine, swimming pool on the deck, evening entertainment) sail down or up the river, stopping at the Ptolemaic temples of Edfu (the best preserved in Egypt, dedicated to Horus) and Kom Ombo (double sanctuary Sobek-Haroeris). The high-end alternative is the dahabiya — a traditional sailing boat of 8 to 12 cabins, silent and refined, which allows you to sail off the beaten path and dock in villages that big boats avoid.

Aswan marks the southern boundary of ancient Egypt, where the Nile narrows between granite rocks that formed the first cataract. More peaceful than Luxor, the city is famous for its Philae temple (saved from the dam waters and rebuilt on Agilkia Island), the Aswan High Dam (built in the 1960s, Lake Nasser the largest artificial lake in Africa) and the legendary Old Cataract Hotel (1899, where Agatha Christie wrote 'Death on the Nile'). It is also the starting point for Abu Simbel, 280 km to the south, where the two colossal temples of Ramses II and Nefertari (13th century BC) were cut into blocks and rebuilt 65 m higher in the 1960s to escape the waters of Lake Nasser — one of the greatest heritage rescue operations in history.