Egypt · Muḩāfaz̧at Aswān
Where to Stay in Edfu, Muḩāfaz̧at Aswān
Edfu is a Nile town of Upper Egypt between Luxor and Aswan, famous for the great Temple of Horus, the best-preserved of all the temples of ancient Egypt.
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Where to stay in Edfu
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Where you stay in Edfu turns on the temple or the river. The lanes around the Temple of Horus keep the great pylon, the market, and the cafés within a walk, and staying in the town suits anyone here for the temple. The pylon towers over the roofs.
Calèches wait by the gate. Down toward the Nile and the boat landing, the town gives way to the corniche, the water, and the cane fields. A room by the river trades the temple for the passing cruisers, the palm-lined bank, and the green fields of the valley.
The Nile slides past the palms. Stay by the temple for the ruins, or by the river for the boats. The temple lies a short way in.
About Edfu
Edfu is the temple town of the falcon god.
What is Edfu known for?
On the west bank of the Nile in the sugar country of the south, it holds the great Temple of Horus, raised by the Ptolemies and long buried in sand, and it keeps the towering pylon and carved halls of the temple, the black granite falcon at its gate, a river landing for the Nile cruisers, and the cane fields of the valley around. The temple stands whole and vast. The Nile runs past the town.
What are the main landmarks in Edfu?
The Temple of Horus is the glory of Edfu. The vast Ptolemaic temple with its towering pylon and pillared halls, standing whole after its long burial in sand, rises over the town, the emblem of the city, above the river. A stone falcon guards the gate.
The great granite Horus stands at the temple door, while the river landing, the market lanes, and the cane fields mark the country around Edfu.
What is the history of Edfu?
Edfu was the holy city of Horus. In ancient days a town stood here around a shrine to Horus the falcon god, called Djeba by the Egyptians and Apollonopolis by the Greeks, one of the old cult centres of the south. A great temple was raised.
The Ptolemies who ruled after Alexander built a vast new temple to Horus on the old holy ground, working at it for nearly two hundred years. Sand and village swallowed the temple. Over the long centuries the sand and the mud houses of the town buried the temple almost to its roof, until diggers cleared it out in the nineteenth century and found it whole.
It came back to light. The freed temple stood complete, its carvings sharp and its roof in place, the best-kept of all Egypt's temples, and Edfu grew as a market town of the cane country. The temple still holds the town.
Edfu keeps its temple by the Nile in Upper Egypt.
Where is Edfu?
Edfu lies in the south of Upper Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. The town sits on the edge of the green valley where the river's fields give way to the desert, with sugar cane and palms along the water and the bare hills of the western desert rising behind. Green fields line the river.
The desert runs on past the edge.
What is the climate of Edfu?
Edfu has one of the driest, hottest climates on earth. Scorching summers and warm winters hold in the desert valley, with fierce sun almost every day and rain that hardly ever falls. The heat rules the long summer.
Cool nights come in winter.
How do you get to Edfu?
Edfu lies on the Nile in Upper Egypt, on the road and rail between Luxor and Aswan. Trains and the river road run to it up the valley from both cities, and the cruise boats tie up below the temple. Boats dock on the Nile.
Aswan lies south up the river.
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Updated August 2026