NEW! Grand Nile Journey II

Luxor lies amid what is arguably one of the world’s largest archaeological sites: Thebes, once a thriving imperial capital. In antiquity, the Nile River ran through Thebes, dividing it into a “City of the Living” and a “City of the Dead.” The former referred to the east bank (modern-day Luxor) as this was where the majority of the city’s population—and at times, Egypt’s rulers—made their home. The west bank (known today as Kurna) was designated the latter as it served as a necropolis, dotted with the lavish resting places of royalty and other nobility.

For millennia, life has flourished along the fertile banks of the Nile. Towering palms and low-lying shrubs line the riverfront, creating a green corridor amid the arid sands of the desert that reach west to the Sahara and east to the Red Sea. Myriad birds, including Egyptian geese, Pied Kingfishers and various egrets and herons, flock to this oasis. Farmers dressed in long, flowing jellabiyas tend to their fields of sugar cane and dates while women balancing baskets atop their heads walk through riverfront villages, their children in tow.