Luxor Governorate (Arabic: محافظة الأقصر Muḥāfaẓat al-Aqṣur) has been one of Egypt's governorates since 7 December 2009, when Hosni Mubarak announced its separation from Qena Governorate. It is located 635 km south of Cairo. It is currently the smallest governorate in Egypt, spanning approximately 5 km from north to south, and 1.5 km from east to west, and lies in Upper Egypt along the Nile. The city of Luxor is the capital of the Luxor governorate. President Mubarak called on the same date for a study to be made with a view to extending the boundaries of the governorate to include the neighbouring towns of Armant and Esna. The national day is the 7th of December, commemorating the establishment of the governorate.
Read more about Luxor Governorate: Emblem, Geography, Demographics, Climate
Famous quotes containing the word luxor:
“What though the traveler tell us of the ruins of Egypt, are we so sick or idle that we must sacrifice our America and today to some man’s ill-remembered and indolent story? Carnac and Luxor are but names, or if their skeletons remain, still more desert sand and at length a wave of the Mediterranean Sea are needed to wash away the filth that attaches to their grandeur. Carnac! Carnac! here is Carnac for me. I behold the columns of a larger
and purer temple.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)