A “landmark” year for Egypt, 2022 marks the centenary of the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb and the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone; it will also see the opening of the “spectacularly impressive” Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza. The best way to celebrate it is a cruise on the Nile, said Jonathan Thompson in The Sunday Times.
Start by watching Kenneth Branagh’s new film of Death on the Nile – due to be released this month – then fly to Aswan, and stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote the novel on which it is based, and where the story opens. The hotel is one of Egypt’s grandest and most “decadent”, and has changed little since Christie’s “prolonged sojourn” there in 1937.
From Aswan, a four-day cruise will take you as far as Luxor, allowing for stops at many of the country’s grandest tombs and temples, all of which lie close to the river. Passenger numbers are currently low owing to the pandemic, and on a vessel such as the “well-appointed” Sanctuary Sun Boat IV, each group of four or five is assigned a dedicated Egyptologist as a guide. Merely being on the river is “a treat” – listening to its “strange subtle harmonies” as fishing boats and feluccas sail by, and you float past “crumbling” ruins and minarets that gleam in the afternoon sunlight.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Among the highlights are the incredible Temple of Isis at Philae, and the magnificent Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to the crocodile-god Sobek. In the Valley of the Kings, you can visit the tomb of Tutankhamun, but more spectacular still is that of Amenhotep II, where the artwork is “so vivid and ridiculously well preserved that it feels as though you’ve stepped into the 1400s BC”. Beyond lies the vast temple complex of Karnak, and the Avenue of Sphinxes, recently opened to the public after decades of restoration work.
Abercrombie & Kent has an 11-night trip from £4,885pp, including flights; abercrombiekent.co.uk
-
5 cinematic cartoons about Bezos betting big on 'Melania'Cartoons Artists take on a girlboss, a fetching newspaper, and more
-
The fall of the generals: China’s military purgeIn the Spotlight Xi Jinping’s extraordinary removal of senior general proves that no-one is safe from anti-corruption drive that has investigated millions
-
Why the Gorton and Denton by-election is a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’Talking Point Reform and the Greens have the Labour seat in their sights, but the constituency’s complex demographics make messaging tricky
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
-
American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
-
Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
-
Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
-
Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
-
Wonder Man: a ‘rare morsel of actual substance’ in the Marvel UniverseThe Week Recommends A Marvel series that hasn’t much to do with superheroes
-
Is This Thing On? – Bradley Cooper’s ‘likeable and spirited’ romcomThe Week Recommends ‘Refreshingly informal’ film based on the life of British comedian John Bishop
-
A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars – history at its most ‘human’The Week Recommends Alwyn Turner’s ‘witty and wide-ranging’ account of the interwar years
