Luxor villagers sue Egypt to move planned Nile port

* New port to provide docking for more than 180 cruise boats

* Villagers say project will displace 10,000 people

By Alexander Dziadosz

CAIRO, March 16 (Reuters) - Villagers from southern Egypt's Luxor are suing the state over plans for a port on the site of nearly 2,000 homes, a lawyer representing them said on Tuesday.

The estimated $1-billion port aims to provide docks for more than 180 Nile cruise boats as part of a project to revamp Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes, whose antiquities attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.

The port would take 500 feddans (210 hectares) of land from villagers in el-Maris and displace at least 10,000 people, said residents who oppose the plan despite promises of compensation.

Abdel Aty, one of the group's lawyers, said the port plan violates an article of the Egyptian constitution which says private property may not be expropriated "except for the general good and against a fair compensation as defined by law".

"This project is not for the general good, it's an investment project," Aty said, adding they would also challenge the project on procedural grounds.