Agatha Christie made this Nile cruise ship famous and it sails on despite coronavirus pandemic
- After a trip on the SS Sudan in 1933, the British crime author penned one of her most famous works, Death on the Nile, featuring detective Hercule Poirot
- Passengers travel on Christie’s original itinerary, stopping at the same archaeological sites, but there’s a long waiting list to stay in her cabin even now
More than a century after it first cruised the glittering waters of the Nile, the Steam Ship Sudan draws tourists following the trail of legendary crime novelist Agatha Christie.
The SS Sudan, which towers over the traditional wooden sailing boats in Egypt’s southern city of Aswan, inspired the British author sometimes dubbed the “Queen of Crime” to pen one of her most famous works in 1937, Death on the Nile.
The whodunnit tells the story of Christie’s famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, investigating murder among the well-heeled travellers as they cruise the Nile.
“Agatha Christie’s trip aboard the steamer, the atmosphere and its route … inspired her to begin writing the first chapters,” says Amir Attia, the cruise ship’s director.
Built for the Egyptian royal family in 1885 and transformed into a cruise liner in 1921, the SS Sudan hosted the novelist with her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, in 1933. Among the ship’s 23 rooms and suites, Attia says the writer’s room is still “the most popular”.