The Guests In my book ‘The Field of Reeds’, you will read of its guests; amongst whose numbers were to be found, the Royalty of Europe, the Aristocratic Elite, the American Millionaires, the Movie Stars and the Politicians; of the Artists, Writers, Musicians and Archaeologists who came. And the thousands of ordinary people: the intrepid early tourists, the soldiers of both World Wars; and the many sick who came in search of a cure for their consumption, but who so often did not survive, and were laid to rest in Luxor’s foreigners’ cemetery or taken back home by their loved ones. The only testament to their passing were the small white crosses, placed near to the English Chapel that was once to be found amid the peace, the palms and the flowers of the Hotel’s gardens; often described in times past, as the most beautiful in the whole of Egypt.

“The garden at the Luxor hotel is a delectable place of palms. Sixty to eighty feet high they stand, slender, slim, and dusky-stemmed, and high up at the top of the trees stretch the glorious fem like fronds of foliage beneath which hang the clusters of yellowing dates. Here rises a thicket of bamboos, tremulous and quivering even on the stillest and most windless nights…Over trellis-work foam pink cascades of bougainvillea, gorgeous scarlet creepers and hibiscus shoot wayward flames through the dark-green foliage, and the scent of hundreds of roses is thick in the air.” ‘The Image in the Sand’. Edward Frederic Benson

The Royalty & Aristocrats The Old Luxor Hotel has from its earliest days been home to the Royalty and Aristocratic elite of the British and European empires. Amongst whose numbers, included the likes of George William Frederick Charles, 2nd Duke Cambridge; Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria; Count Arthur of Schönborn-Wiesentheid; Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt; George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon; and Lady Dorothy Rachel Melissa Walpole Mills, daughter of the 5th Earl of Orford.

“The Duke of Cambridge has just gone—taking all our butter with him—none for tea, but there remain an Austrian Archduke and at least 5 Countesses, 1 Viscountess, and a few Earls and some lesser lights.” Margaret Benson to her mother, Old Luxor Hotel, 9th Feb 1896.

The Egyptologists Of all the guests and visitors to the Old Luxor Hotel, it is the many Egyptologists who provided the greatest stories and historical adventures, ones which are worthy of any romantic Hollywood blockbuster. They tell of an ancient Egyptian curse that threaten to destroy anyone who defiles the final resting place of a long forgotten pharaoh; of a three-thousand year old papyrus smuggled out of from within its walls by a Victorian ‘Indiana Jones’, under the very noses of guards of from the Egyptian Antiquities Service, with the help of the hotel’s manager and a thirteen year old tomboy.

It was also in the garden of the Old Luxor Hotel, that the English archaeologist, Howard Carter was often to be found taking afternoon tea with the elite of society; and where he met the Earl of Carnarvon, which led to a collaboration, that after years of fruitless digging, resulted in the discovery of a lifetime – an intact Royal tomb, belonging to a forgotten boy King. It was here that, Margaret Benson, the first woman to be granted permission to excavate a Pharaonic temple stayed; who for three seasons between 1895 to 1897, explored the Precinct of Mut in Asher; where she discovered a rose granite statue base which bore the rare cartouche of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun and as such represented one of the earliest finds that testified to his very existence.

The Actors, Artists & Musicians The Old Luxor Hotel has always been a magnet for many famous people, no more so than the many artists, actors and musicians, who have passed through its doors. The French composer Camille Saint-Saens, stayed at the hotel in the January of 1912. The iconic Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbanks, of Robin Hood fame and his actress wife, Mary Pickford, also visited the Old Luxor Hotel in the December of 1929, stopping briefly to have their photograph taken outside of its entrance. Also, to be found at the Old Luxor Hotel, was the renowned English artist David Hockney, who produced a fine watercolour of its terrace in 1978.

In the first three months of 1912, Gene Gauntier, the pioneering movie actress and screenwriter, stayed at the Old Luxor Hotel, during which time, she appeared in or wrote the scripts for 15 silent movies set in and around Luxor, for the Kalem Company of New York and its director, Sidney Olcott: ‘The Fighting Dervishes of the Desert’, ‘A Prisoner of the Harem’, ‘Missionaries in Darkest Africa’, ‘Tragedy of the Desert’, ‘Ancient Temples of Egypt’*, ‘Down Through the Ages’, ‘An Arabian Tragedy’, ‘Winning a Widow’, ‘Luxor, Egypt’*, ‘From the Manger to the Cross; or, Jesus of Nazareth’, ‘Making Photoplays in Egypt’, ‘Dust of the Desert’, ‘Egypt as It Was in the Time of Moses, ‘Along the River Nile’* and Captured by Bedouins’. * indicates a documentary film.

The Explorers & Adventurers The Old Luxor Hotel has attracted its fair share of intrepid explorers and adventurers, whose exploits have been written down and avidly read by those seeking escape from their usually banal and boring lives. It was here that the South African mining magnate, politician and founder of Rhodesia, Cecil Rhodes stayed in one of chalets, just a few months before his death in 1902. A more frequent visitor to the hotel was the sleazy American millionaire lawyer, Theodore Montgomery Davis, who eased his conscience by funding excavations in the Valley of the Kings for twelve long years, during which time he was involved in the discovery or clearance of some 30 tombs. However, by 1913, he had become disillusioned with his efforts to find an intact royal tomb, and believed that the valley to be ‘exhausted’. It was later revealed that Davis had in fact come within feet of the steps which led to the tomb of Tutankhamun!

In the February of 1933, the explorer and travel writer, Lady Dorothy Mills came to the hotel, shortly after the publication of her epic travelogue – ‘The Country of the Orinoco’, in which she recounted her encounters with three escapees from the notorious Devil’s island prison, when one of them attacked her she shot him in the thigh, then bandaged him up! Even more dangerous were the local native Venezuelan Indians, whose shaman sorcerers possessed poisons which can either kill instantly at a touch on the hand or foot, or more slowly leaving the poor victim’s body with one huge itching sore before death comes as a merciful release. However, it was at the Old Luxor Hotel, that she had her greatest adventure, when she met the fearsome cobra Goddess Meretseger. Her story is told in my book – ‘The Field of Reeds’.

The Owners “The nominal ruler [of Egypt] is Tewfik; but Tewfik takes his orders from Baring; and Baring, I suspect, has to take his orders from [John Mason] Cook. The latter Sovereign becomes more and more potent as we get further up the Nile and here at Luxor, where a special hotel has arisen under the light of his countenance, he figures quite as a modern Ammon-Ra.” Vanity Fair, 9th March, 1889

In 1889, Thomas Cook & Son sold the Old Luxor Hotel to its then manager, Albert Ferdinand Pagnon, for £11,000 with a loan provided by John Mason Cook. That same year, Pagnon extends the hotel’s accommodation to about 120 after complaints from the guests. Following his death in 1909, the hotel passed into the ownership of the Swiss hotelier Charles Baehler’s Upper Egypt Hotels Company; which also owned the Winter Palace in Luxor and the Cataract at Aswan. The Old Luxor Hotel finally became the property of the state-owned Egypt Hotel Company, the successor to Baehler’s illustrious Egyptian hotel chain, who ran the iconic Shepheard’s hotel in Cairo amongst others.