Opening of the Hotel - Extract taken from a Thomas Cook & Son Advertisement, September 1877 “On December 1 [1877], there will be opened a Hotel at Luxor, Thebes, Upper Egypt, under the management of Messrs Pagnon and Rostovitz, with the personal supervision of Madame Pagnon who has had twenty years of experience in Egypt. The climate of Upper Egypt during the winter has long been known to the Profession for cases of incipient phthisis, chronic bronchitis and chronic laryngeal affections. Hitherto, patients who have been sent to Egypt must either be sent to Cairo or go up the Nile in a dahabeah. The improvements that have been effected in the service of the Nile steamers during: the last few years, since the time that we were first honoured with the exclusive agency of the same by the Khedive Administration (eight years ago), have made our “Nile Trips” a real success. The latest improvement, and by no means the least important, is the erection at Luxor of a hotel which will work in connection with the steamers, the want of which, owing to the increasing traffic on the Nile, has been generally felt by the travelling public.

Previous to this new arrangement, no accommodation of any sort was to be had anywhere on the Nile, and travellers intending to stay a month or more in Upper Egypt had to incur the cost and inconvenience of hiring a Dahabeah, a slow and tedious mode of conveyance. The Luxor Hotel will be opened at the commencement of this season, and our tickets will allow passengers to break their journey at Luxor on their way up or down the Nile, thus affording opportunities for the antiquarian to visit Karnak and Thebes, and to devote the time necessary for thoroughly examining these most interesting places. Invalids intending to make the Nile their stay for the winter, will now be able to do so with more comfort than heretofore, and will have the services of an English doctor, whom we have engaged to remain at Luxor for the season. Arrangements for a stay at Luxor Hotel can be made at our office in Cairo (The Pavilion, Shepheard’s Hotel) previous to starting.”

Health Resort “Having read in the Daily News of today the letter of your “Own Correspondent” from Alexandria, describing the hotel at Luxor as “comfortable”, I am induced to ask you to allow me a short space in your valuable newspaper, that I may state my experience of a lengthened sojourn there. I and my party spent the winter of 1878-1879 on the Nile and at Luxor, and I cannot think that invalids should be tempted so far from home and home comforts by representations so ‘couleur de rose’ of both steamers and hotel as those of your correspondent. It is well known at Cairo how great was the dissatisfaction with the arrangements of the hotel at Luxor of ail who returned from a residence there, and how thankful were the poor invalids to go back to the comforts and attention so lacking at Luxor. The food was inferior and scanty, and so badly prepared by a cheap cook that it required strong and healthy appetite to relish it. Everything was exorbitantly dear; a glass of buffalo milk was charged 1s, which cost three-halfpence outside of the gates. During the season rooms were added to the hotel, into which myself, and party, as well as invalids were put as soon as the rooms were finished. They were so damp, from the stone floors just laid with wet mortar that the matting on which our trunks were placed became in a few days covered with green moss, and the bottoms of the trunks themselves also. Colds and sore throats were the consequence to those in health, but to the poor young people with bleeding lungs far worse effects ensued. The doctor too, of whom mention, has been by your Correspondent, charged so highly that invalids who could possibly live on without his advice avoided calling him in.

It should be understood that the movements of visitors to Luxor were wholly dependent on the steamers, and great therefore was the disappointment of those remaining until near the end of the season to find there was no boat at the time advertised to take them back to Cairo. They were virtually prisoners in the hotel. Some oi the gentlemen telegraphed for a dahabeah. At length when the time arrived for dismantling the hotel, previous to closing it for the summer, a steamer arrived, into which the guests were turned, to remain two days, till the manager was ready to depart. Of this party one of the gentlemen was so ill that he died ere reaching Cairo, and another a few weeks after. Will anyone acquainted with these facts deem the hotel at Luxor ‘comfortable’? I remain yours &c. A visitor to Luxor.” Extract of an article published in the London Daily News, 16th September 1879, p. 6. Image © British Library Board. transcribed with their kind permission.

The Golden Age “Days at Luxor were delightful, and nights in the Luxor Hotel dreamless…Everything was clean and fresh and pleasant. The scent of mimosa flowers floated in at a window and open door. The chirruping birds met your ear. The air seemed to be golden with sunlight by day and silver with the moonlight at night. Tall palm trees shaded you from the midday sun… Truly, for me the Luxor Hotel was a place of delights.” Charles A. Cooper, ‘Seeking the Sun: an Egyptian Holiday’, 1892

“…and a great cat-headed statue, wrought in black granite, and taken away from the neighbouring temple of Mut in Karnak, looks with steadfast gaze out and beyond over the Eastern horizon, with eyes focused beyond material range, as if waiting for the dawn of the everlasting day… It was close beside the great cat-headed god, sheltered by the thicket of bamboo and withdrawn a little from the publicity of the path, that Abdul had caused their table to be laid, and the white tablecloth, glistening with silver and lit by shaded candles, made a vivid and a modern note in the antique darkness.” ‘The Image in the Sand’, Edward Frederic Benson, 1905.

“We arrived late at night and in the morning a devastatingly beautiful scene met our eyes. The Luxor Hotel has, the oldest and largest palm garden of Egypt, scattered about the garden were white villas with red tiled roofs which could be engaged for large parties. The one we selected had been the home of Cecil Rhodes shortly before his death and was just large enough for our company. The walls were two feet thick and the interior cool. At the back of the house in a separate building were our bathrooms to which we ran to in our bathrobes when no one was looking. Adjoining the gardens were the delicately beautiful ruins of Luxor [Temple].” Gene Gauntier, ‘Blazing the Trail’, Woman’s Home Companion, 1929

The Declining Years “… On April 1, 1991, at approximately 7:00 p.m., several EHC [Egyptian Hotels Company] employees, led by Mr. Yusseri, took possession of the Luxor Hotel. According to a subsequent statement to the Luxor police by Mr. Bahia El Din Abdel Hadi El Wakeel, a security guard at the Luxor Hotel, "more than 100 people from the EHC seized the Wena Hotel by force in spite myself and others responsible for the security and guards in the hotel present at the time." Mr. Wakeel also stated that the "EHC forced their entry through by force . . . which caused panic, fear, and hysteria for the guests and employees. Two other guards, Messrs. Ismael Ahmed Hefni and Ahmed Hamza Mostafa, made short statements, agreeing with Mr. Wakeel's description of events.”15.1 Wena Hotels Ltd. v Arab Republic of Egypt, 8th December 2000, International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.

“The Old Luxor Hotel is now neglected and all but forgotten. The days when the elite and famous stayed here are long gone. Its only guests today are the cockroaches and rats which occupy its rooms. Its once beautiful gardens are overgrown and filled with broken furniture. Its tall palm trees only give shade to the tacky stalls and a sad café; which in the past gave respite to those most in need, before they found eternal life in the field of reeds” A. A. Aziz

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