Private Edfu and Kom Ombo Tour to Aswan from Luxor

The drive from Luxor to Aswan

The road from Luxor to Aswan runs south along the Nile for about two hundred and twenty kilometres through farmland, villages and desert edge, and with stops it makes a full day. Starting at five in the morning means the temples are visited in the cooler hours and you reach Aswan in the afternoon. The air-conditioned vehicle is comfortable, and the private driver and guide are yours alone.

The advantage of this tour over a train or a public bus is that you see the best sites on the way without any arranging: Edfu and Kom Ombo are stops, not detours. If you ask how to get from Luxor to Aswan with sightseeing, this private drive is the easiest answer. The return to Luxor is not included, so the tour suits travellers continuing their journey in Aswan.

Edfu: the Temple of Horus

The Temple of Horus at Edfu is widely considered the best-preserved major temple in Egypt. Built by the Ptolemaic kings from 237 BC and completed after about a hundred and eighty years, it is dedicated to the falcon-headed god Horus, and its huge pylon, courtyard and sanctuary survive almost complete, with walls covered in inscriptions that tell the myth of Horus and Seth.

A pair of granite falcon statues guards the entrance, and the dark inner sanctuary still holds the stone shrine of the god. Your guide explains the rituals and the texts, and the visit takes about an hour. Because the temple stands in the town of Edfu, you will also see everyday life in an Upper Egyptian market town.

Kom Ombo: a temple for two gods

Kom Ombo stands on a bend of the Nile, in a spot that has been sacred for centuries, and it is unusual because it is a double temple: the left side is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god, and the right to Haroeris, a form of Horus. Everything is symmetrical, with two entrances, two halls and two sanctuaries.

On the walls you can see detailed reliefs, including scenes of medical instruments and a calendar, and a small shrine nearby once held mummified crocodiles. The riverside setting makes it one of the most photogenic temples in Egypt, particularly in the afternoon light. Allow about an hour, and keep an eye out for the small shrine near the entrance, which is easy to miss. Your guide shows where to stand to photograph both halves of the temple.

Aswan: the Unfinished Obelisk, the High Dam and Philae

In Aswan, after lunch, you visit the Unfinished Obelisk in the old granite quarries, a giant obelisk that cracked as it was cut and was abandoned, so it shows how the ancient stonemasons worked. Then you see the High Dam, the huge embankment that created Lake Nasser, completed in 1970, with a viewpoint over the lake.

The last visit is the Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis. The temple was moved to Agilkia Island by a major rescue project in the 1960s and 1970s, when the building of the dam would have drowned it, and you reach it by motorboat. Your guide tells the story of the temple and its rescue. After the visit, the driver takes you to your hotel in Aswan.