Luxor Governorate has been one of Egypt's governorates since 7 December 2009, when former president Hosni Mubarak announced its separation from the Qena Governorate. It is located 635 km south of Cairo. It lies in Upper Egypt along the Nile. Luxor is the capital of the Luxor governorate, other important cities and tourist centers include Esna and Armant.

Egypt is divided, for the purpose of public administration, according to a three-layer hierarchy and some districts are further subdivided, creating an occasional fourth layer. It has a centralized system of local government officially called local administration as it is a branch of the Executive.