LUXORMonument
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25.7297, 32.6447
On Luxor's West Bank stands New Gourna, the most celebrated work of the visionary Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy. Designed in the 1940s to rehouse villagers living among the Theban tombs, it was a radical experiment in building beautifully and affordably for the poor, using traditional mud brick, domes and vaults, natural cooling and local craft rather than concrete.
The village was never fully realised as Fathy intended, and time and rising groundwater have taken a toll, but the surviving mosque, market and houses remain a pilgrimage site for architects and a landmark of sustainable design. Preservation efforts continue to save what remains. For travellers curious about more than pharaohs, it is a thought-provoking stop, a reminder that Egypt's architectural genius did not end with antiquity.
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Much of the original village is fragile or altered, so temper expectations, focus on the mosque and Fathy's surviving structures, and a guide adds essential context.