How to see the 2027 solar eclipse in Egypt

This eclipse – sometimes called the Great North African Eclipse – traces a path of totality 15,000km long, and a total eclipse will be seen in nine countries in total, including much of north Africa: Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. During the eclipse, the moon’s shadow will travel at 2,500km an hour across north Africa.

The area just south-east of Luxor in Egypt has been described as the perfect place to see the 2027 solar eclipse, with the longest period of otherworldly darkness. For comparison, in Tunisia, totality will total 5 minutes 41 seconds (in Sfax) and in Morocco, 4 minutes 50 seconds (in Tangier). In 2026, the eclipse that was viewable from parts of western Europe had its longest totality just off the coast of Iceland: two minutes and 18 seconds.

“Luxor's the big one,” says Anthony Horrobin from our eclipse watching expert partners, Encounters Travel, “Six minutes 23 seconds, the longest anywhere on land for this eclipse, and Upper Egypt in August is about as close to a cloud guarantee as you'll get – the weather risk more or less disappears. Watching it go dark over Karnak is a bucket-list travel experience and one I urge people to experience.”

The vast Karnak complex near Luxor, an ancient site of temples and other buildings, is the second most visited historic place in Egypt. There’s something particularly special about convening here, to see a phenomenon that has inspired people for millennia, in a place where humanity has gathered for thousands of years.

Egypt has a long history intertwined with eclipses. In Egyptian mythology Apep, a giant snake, periodically tried to eat the sun god, Ra, who always managed to escape his coils – and any near misses were explained as eclipses. Egyptians recorded eclipse encounters, and these have been useful for historians. The world’s earliest recorded eclipse, in 1207 BCE, has been used to help date the reigns of Egyptian pharaohs Ramesses the Great and his son Merneptah.

On our guided tours you will be with a local Egypt expert, and there may be an astronomer too, who can explain what you’re experiencing as you stand in the shadow of the moon.

Even before totality occurs, you’ll see the light change strangely – colours may seem brighter, and you may see odd ‘shadow bands’ – ripples of light on flat surfaces caused by the Earth’s atmosphere affecting the incoming light. The temperature will start to dip.

Experiencing totality is one of the strangest natural phenomena. In the dark period where the moon covers the sun, you can suddenly see the planets in the sky. Birds stop singing and eerie twilight descends. You might see sunset-like colours all along the horizon. A ‘diamond ring effect’ follows, as the sun’s light haloes the moon again, and totality ends.

North Africa is a part of the world where, in August, the chance of this eclipse being rained off, or clouded out, is extremely rare.

In Luxor in August you can expect 12 hours of sunshine a day, 13 hours of daylight, and no chance of rain. The maximum daily average is 39°C and the daily low at night is 21°C. “On weather, I wouldn't claim a tour can guarantee clear skies – nobody can,” says Ant, but they point out that if there is cloud, a group tour will have the right resources to relocate at the last minute. “What a tour does give you is vehicles, drivers and a ground team who know the area.”