"Sudan" ... an Egyptian ship that inspired the "Queen of Crime" that attracts visitors despite the pandemic
The Hotel "Old Cataract" also preserved the traces of the British novelist's trip
picture
With its shiny black hull and warm design dating back to the end of the 19th century, the "Sudan" steamship that inspired the "crime queen" Agatha Christie is still resisting time, keeping the memory of the British novelist alive.
The elegant design of this steamboat, which is 73 meters long and 14.5 meters wide, contrasts with the other primitive barges sailing the Nile.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced cruise companies to stop their activities for several months, "Sudan" quickly returned to service last October.
"We received reservations immediately," said the ship's director, Amir Attia. All rooms are now seized in the 1,000-ton ship.
He points out that Agata Christie's "flight atmosphere" on the ship served as an inspiration for her in writing the first chapters of her novel "Death Over the Nile", which was published in 1937.
The novel is also still alive, as it has been adapted again in a cinematic work signed by British director Kenneth Branagh, expected to be shown in 2021.
The ship was built for the Egyptian royal family in 1885 before being converted into a cruise ship in 1921.
Agatha Christie, who has written 66 novels, and her husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, landed on the ship in 1933.
Attia says that Christie, like the Western elite at the time, traveled a lot.
She and her husband received an invitation "to stay at the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, and then they made a Nile cruise for a few days on board the Sudan ship before concluding her tour at the Old Cataract Hotel" in Aswan.
After being neglected for a long time, the ship lives a renewed youth since its purchase and renewal by a French cruise company in the first decade of the current century.
The steamboat’s engine no longer uses coal as fuel, but diesel and solar energy.
From the wooden bridge, visitors can still enjoy seeing the palms on the sandy banks of the Nile, just like the Belgian inspector Hercole Poirot, one of the most prominent characters in Agata Christie's novels.
Among the 23 rooms and suites on the ship, Attia asserts that the suite where Agatha Christi landed is the most desired suite for visitors to the ship, which employs 67 employees "day and night".
"Usually there will be reservation requests for the next two years," he added.
The tourists continue their journey in history through the luxurious "Old Cataract" Hotel, which also preserved the traces of the British novelist's journey.
In the hotel entrance, you can see a wheelchair and a small desk that the writer used to sit on in her suite during her multiple visits, according to Selim Shore, the hotel's manager.
These remaining traces of the novelist's travels are still "an attraction in themselves" as lovers of Christie's stories come to take pictures next to this chair.
Since its inception in 1899, this hotel has become a favorite station for statesmen, artists and individuals from the velvet classes of the world.
The hotel received in particular the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (with a suite in his name similar to the novelist) and "almost all of the French presidents during the last 40 years."
He also stayed at the hotel of the Egyptian Nobel Prize-winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz.
But since 2016, the hotel has attracted an increasing number of Egyptians wishing to see the filming location of the series "Grand Hotel", which was set in the 1950s and achieved great success when it was shown that year.
Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news