The Winter Palace Hotel, a 5-star hotel located on the banks of the River Nile in Luxor

Luxor

Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896 , with an area of approximately . As the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open air museum", as the ruins of the temple...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, just south of Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the River Nile in the city today known as Luxor and was founded in 1400 BCE.,...

, was built in 1886. There are 86 rooms and 6 suites.

In 1975 the complex was extended with the construction of the New Winter Palace. The addition classed as a 3-star hotel, was joined by corridors to the original. It was demolished in 2008. In 1996, the Pavilion, a 4-star annex with 116 rooms, was built in the rear of the garden of the Winter, close to the swimming pool. The Pavilion share many amenities with the Palace, including the gardens, pools, tennis courts, terraces and restaurants.

The hotel is owned by the Egyptian General Company for Tourism & Hotels ("EGOTH") of Egypt and managed by Accor

Accor

Accor is Europe's leading hotel group , part of the CAC 40 index , and operates in over 90 countries. Headquartered in Courcouronnes, Essonne, France, near Évry, France, the group owns, operates and franchises 4,229 hotels ranging from economy to luxury on five continents .Previously, the group...

, a French Hotel company, where it is part of the prime division Sofitel

Sofitel

Sofitel is a luxury hotel chain managed by Accor, which opened its first property in Strasbourg in 1964. Its first overseas opening in Minneapolis, USA was in 1974. In 1995 Sofitel had 100 hotels in 40 countries and employed 12500 people....

.

The Hotel is featured on the exclusive Palace Hotels of the World.

The Palace has 5 restaurants: the 1886 Restaurant (French cuisine) and la Corniche Restaurant (international cuisine), both located in the Palace, the Bougainvilliers (international cuisine) in the Pavilion, the Palmetto (Italian cuisine and snacks) and the El Tarboush (Egyptian cuisine) in the garden close to the swimming pool.

Notable residents

• George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon
  George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon
  George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon was an English aristocrat best known as the financial backer of the search for and the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.-Biography:...
  
  , a collector of Egyptian antiquities who financed archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter's
  Howard Carter (archaeologist)
  Howard Carter was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist, noted as a primary discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun.-Beginning of career:...
  
   discovery of Tutankhamun
  Tutankhamun
  Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
  
  's tomb in 1922, stayed many times at the Winter Palace.
• It is said that British crime novelist Agatha Christie
  Agatha Christie
  Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
  
   stayed at The Winter Palace Hotel while writing her famous Poirot detective story Death on the Nile
  Death on the Nile
  Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 1, 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.The book...
  
  .

External links

• Winter Palace by Accor Sofitel