Egypt Upper Nile and Cruise Guide 2026: Luxor, Aswan, Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel and Philae
Browse more guides: Egypt travel | Africa destinations Egypt Upper Nile and Cruise Guide 2026: Luxor, Aswan, Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel and Philae TL;DR I spent last winter sailing south from Luxor, climbing in and out of New Kingdom tombs, and watching sunrise on four 20-metre Ramesses II statues at Abu Simbel. Upper Egypt in 2026 is the strongest single concentration of accessible ancient sites I have walked, and the Egyptian pound is so weak that prices for Indian and Western travellers feel close to what they were a decade ago. Luxor gives me Karnak, a 100-hectare temple complex that is the largest religious building ever constructed, plus the Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 carved columns and the 3-kilometre Avenue of Sphinxes that reopened in November 2021 after four decades of excavation. Across the Nile, the Valley of the Kings holds 63 royal tombs including Tutankhamun KV62, Ramesses VI and Seti I, with the cliff-cut Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut from 1473 BCE below t...