Discover Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor, a 5-star luxury hotel built in 1886 by British explorers perched on the Nile River amid luxuriant tropical gardens and ancient temples. This opulent Luxor hotel blends rich colonial design with the glory of Pharaonic times. In this 19th-century palace, once a winter retreat for the Egyptian royal family, Agatha Christie wrote her famed 1937 novel: Death on the Nile.