River cruising The Jewel of the Nile
Poised between Africa, Asia and Europe, Egypt stands at the spaghetti junction of the world and its shimmering jewel is the Nile. Spanning 4,258 miles from Lake Victoria and emptying into the Mediterranean Sea, this noble waterway was once the preserve of the Victorian elite, filled with paddle steamers built for the moneyed, and adventurous. A lot has changed since then, but that same clamour for Egyptian exoticism has not died away. Will Moffitt speaks to Enrique Cansino, co-owner of Nour el Nil, about the merits, and challenges, of delivering cruises along Egypt’s famous river.
I
n the fifth century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote that “Egypt was the gift of the Nile”. A constant source of sustenance, the
river’s propensity to burst its banks and flow into surrounding fields gifted the ancient Egyptians with fertile land that swiftly became a highly advanced agrarian system. A trading network built around wheat, papyrus and other crops helped the country cement itself as a necessary ally to its surrounding neighbours, while the river itself acquired a somewhat spiritual dimension. In contrast with the inhabitants of the desolate Sahara, this crystal blue water source was seen by locals as proof that the gods – and the pharaoh – had destined the Egyptians for greatness.
While those once great civilisations withered and crumbled, the preserved Hieroglyphs etched into the tombs and temples in Cairo continued to tell a story of a river and its people. It was a tale that fired the late Victorian imagination, sending Thomas Cook and a group of well-to-do guests on a three- month trip to the 'Mother of the World' in search
of mystique, exoticism and – in Cook’s case – a profitable new business venture. With awe inspiring relics such as the pyramids located near the Nile’s banks, Cook established an armada of paddle steamers to ferry the moneyed and adventurous along the waterway. Then he opened his eponymous hotel in Luxor in 1887 near the gilded temples of Karnak to complete the route. Ultimately, Cook’s greatest triumph was to sell Egypt to the world, cementing the land of the great pyramids in popular imagination. Good marketing brought a famous clientele, including Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie aboard his steamships. Even now there is a two year waiting list for passengers eager to stay on board the old S.S. Sudan, on which Christie’s 1937 novel Death on the Nile takes place. Cruise down the Nile’s shimmering cold waters today and it is clear that a unique kind of exoticism still holds sway over travellers eager to feel and see an entrancing river that once shaped the trajectory of an entire civilisation.
World Cruise Industry Review /
www.worldcruiseindustryreview.com
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Malouka/NEN
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