Want to get closer to the ancient Egyptians? Take to the water, says historian Bettany Hughes
Claire Webb - 29 June 2019
When Cleopatra sailed down the Nile 2,000 years ago, her barge was probably furnished with gold and ivory, embroidered sails and even gardens. Historian Bettany Hughes’s budget didn’t quite stretch to that, but she did hire a dahabiya – a traditional flatbottomed wooden boat – when filming her latest series about ancient Egypt.
“There would have been no ancient Egypt if there had been no Nile, so to get the chance to live on a boat – I can’t tell you what a delight it was,” says Hughes. “It really helped me get under the skin of the ancient Egyptians, to get a feel for what it would have been like for them living and working on the river. And a huge highlight was how unbelievably friendly everybody was. Historically the river has united Egypt from north to south and east to west, and you really got that sense on the boat. People on the banks would shout out and invite me to have breakfast with them, fishermen would try and sell you fish… You become part of the river community.”
The ancients thought of Egypt as being divided into two types of land: the ‘red land’ and the ‘black land’. “When the Nile flooded, it deposited fertile black earth on the riverbanks,” Hughes explains. “We had a drone with us and, my gosh, you can see it – this ribbon of blue, surrounded by fertile green and then desert beyond. The Greek historian Herodotus said Egypt is the ‘gift of the Nile’, and you absolutely get that impression.”
Cruises on dahabiyas first became popular in the early 1800s, when wealthy European travellers were entranced by Egypt’s monumental pyramid tombs and temples. “It became the thing to do; they’d pack a grand piano, a cow for fresh milk, 3,000 bottles of claret… The director and I did have a mad moment where we considered having a donkey on the dahabiya as they would have had, to fetch supplies.”
They decided not to set sail with a donkey in tow, but Hughes did get the chance to befriend one when she visited Saqqara, the vast necropolis where the first pyramid was built, just south of Cairo. “I’d love to have had this Lawrence of Arabia moment and charge out into the desert on a camel, but there’s no evidence of camels in ancient Egypt – no bones or camel images on tomb walls. So we thought we’d try to re-create the authentic Egyptian experience on a donkey called Whisky and Soda – even if it wasn’t that dignified, waddling along on a donkey!”
More glamorously, Hughes followed in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, who was inspired to write Death on the Nile after sailing on the SS Sudan in the 1930s – the only steamboat that still plies the river between Luxor and Aswan.
“It was built for the King of Egypt. There’s a picture of him on the boat and he looks exactly like Poirot, with this massive moustache.” The queen of crime also stayed at the Old Cataract in Aswan – a colonial-era, Moorish-style hotel that was sumptuously refurbished a few years ago. Christie set part of her novel in the hotel and the 1978 film adaptation was also shot there.
“We couldn’t afford to stay there but it’s amazing. The Nile changes when it reaches Aswan. You have these great big rocks and the water comes rushing past. It’s really beautiful, and you can take a boat and see all these ancient inscriptions on the rocks. There’s another very special place close to there – a temple on an island called Philae. You have to get to it by boat, and it was one of Christie’s favourite places. It’s dedicated to Isis, the goddess of resurrection. When they dammed the river to create Lake Nasser, they rescued it from the water, so it’s almost like the temple itself has been resurrected.”
Hughes hopes her series will inspire viewers to explore Egypt’s ancient wonders for themselves. Visitor numbers slumped following the Arab Spring and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane in 2015. She never stopped visiting, refusing to let the political unrest deter her. “They’re winning if they put you off going to places, so I always try, without being foolhardy, but on principle. It was very quiet five years ago, but people are beginning to come back. You get the most incredible welcome, so I would absolutely recommend it to anybody.”
“There would have been no ancient Egypt if there had been no Nile, so to get the chance to live on a boat – I can’t tell you what a delight it was,” says Hughes. “It really helped me get under the skin of the ancient Egyptians, to get a feel for what it would have been like for them living and working on the river. And a huge highlight was how unbelievably friendly everybody was. Historically the river has united Egypt from north to south and east to west, and you really got that sense on the boat. People on the banks would shout out and invite me to have breakfast with them, fishermen would try and sell you fish… You become part of the river community.”
The ancients thought of Egypt as being divided into two types of land: the ‘red land’ and the ‘black land’. “When the Nile flooded, it deposited fertile black earth on the riverbanks,” Hughes explains. “We had a drone with us and, my gosh, you can see it – this ribbon of blue, surrounded by fertile green and then desert beyond. The Greek historian Herodotus said Egypt is the ‘gift of the Nile’, and you absolutely get that impression.”
Cruises on dahabiyas first became popular in the early 1800s, when wealthy European travellers were entranced by Egypt’s monumental pyramid tombs and temples. “It became the thing to do; they’d pack a grand piano, a cow for fresh milk, 3,000 bottles of claret… The director and I did have a mad moment where we considered having a donkey on the dahabiya as they would have had, to fetch supplies.”
They decided not to set sail with a donkey in tow, but Hughes did get the chance to befriend one when she visited Saqqara, the vast necropolis where the first pyramid was built, just south of Cairo. “I’d love to have had this Lawrence of Arabia moment and charge out into the desert on a camel, but there’s no evidence of camels in ancient Egypt – no bones or camel images on tomb walls. So we thought we’d try to re-create the authentic Egyptian experience on a donkey called Whisky and Soda – even if it wasn’t that dignified, waddling along on a donkey!”
More glamorously, Hughes followed in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, who was inspired to write Death on the Nile after sailing on the SS Sudan in the 1930s – the only steamboat that still plies the river between Luxor and Aswan.
“It was built for the King of Egypt. There’s a picture of him on the boat and he looks exactly like Poirot, with this massive moustache.” The queen of crime also stayed at the Old Cataract in Aswan – a colonial-era, Moorish-style hotel that was sumptuously refurbished a few years ago. Christie set part of her novel in the hotel and the 1978 film adaptation was also shot there.
“We couldn’t afford to stay there but it’s amazing. The Nile changes when it reaches Aswan. You have these great big rocks and the water comes rushing past. It’s really beautiful, and you can take a boat and see all these ancient inscriptions on the rocks. There’s another very special place close to there – a temple on an island called Philae. You have to get to it by boat, and it was one of Christie’s favourite places. It’s dedicated to Isis, the goddess of resurrection. When they dammed the river to create Lake Nasser, they rescued it from the water, so it’s almost like the temple itself has been resurrected.”
Hughes hopes her series will inspire viewers to explore Egypt’s ancient wonders for themselves. Visitor numbers slumped following the Arab Spring and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane in 2015. She never stopped visiting, refusing to let the political unrest deter her. “They’re winning if they put you off going to places, so I always try, without being foolhardy, but on principle. It was very quiet five years ago, but people are beginning to come back. You get the most incredible welcome, so I would absolutely recommend it to anybody.”