See Egypt through the eyes of Agatha Christie with the help of Literary Tours in Egypt. Learn about our Agatha Christie tours of Egypt.
You’re here because the idea of touring Egypt from the perspective of the master of mystery appeals to you. You’re curious, and this curiosity is most certainly a good thing. It is curiosity that pulls us towards international travel and it is curiosity that pulls us through a novel, turning the pages excited to find out what happens next.
People read books as they travel and they read stories set all around the world, travelling in their imaginations long before they book flights and accommodation. Egypt’s ancient mysteries have inspired and delighted curious authors over the years, but none hold the same prestige as Agatha Christie. Death on the Nile is one of Christie’s most revered novels and the sense of place it evokes is unforgettable. Whether you want to follow in the footsteps of Christie herself or the shrewd Hercule Poirot, a literary trip to Egypt has so much to offer!
Agatha Christie tours of Egypt are trips through Egypt that are inspired by the author’s real-life travels through the country and her novel’s fictional scenes set in Egypt.
While we have no doubt Agatha Christie would have been an excellent tour guide if she had shown such inclination, she instead spent her creative energies writing many of the greatest mystery novels ever. So, it is our job to create the Egypt tours inspired by her travels and her work, and this is a job we have taken to with great pleasure.
We have created a range of Agatha Christie tours of Egypt that cover a selection of different price points and trip lengths. People with only three days’ spare can opt for our Agatha Christie in Luxor Luxury 3-day Tour or our Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile in Aswan Luxury 3-day Tour. And if you’re looking for a truly epic trip, you can embark on our Agatha Christie in Egypt Luxury 15-day Tour.
Anyone who has recently read Death on the Nile probably already knows all of the places featured in the novel, but most of us come back to Christie novels every few years and it may have been a while since you’ve read it.
One of the problems with a Death on the Nile tour in the 21st Century is that you can’t actually do exactly what Hercule Poirot and the other characters did did anymore as many of those original sites are now under water due to the construction of the Aswan Dam. The dam was built to regulate flooding on the Nile Delta and to generate hydroelectric power. One downside of the dam was that 22 ancient monuments and buildings were in danger of flooding due to the increasing size of Lake Nasser. The UNESCO Nubia Campaign was started to fund and organise a huge effort to move these ancient treasures. This huge effort started in 19060 and was completed in 1980. It means that you can’t see the likes of Abu Simbel and Wadi Halfa that feature in the book as they have both been moved away from their original places on the Nile.
Because visits to Wadi Halfa and Abu Simbel aren’t possible anymore, both Death on the Nile films travel from Aswan to Luxor instead. So this is also where our Death on the Nile cruises go too as we think this is a particularly picturesque compromise. There are still so many wonderful places we visit that are related to the book and Agatha Christie’s travels in Egypt, but we wanted to explicitly mentioned this as we’re sure any true Agatha Christie fan will know immediately that the cruise isn’t going where it went in the book.
All the characters in Death on the Nile meet in Aswan, and some of the key scenes take place in this beautiful city on the Nile. Linnet and Simon discover that Jackie has followed them to Aswan when she confronts them on the terrace at the Old Cataract Hotel. Mrs Otterbourne and her daughter visit Philae Temple and the original dam. Hercule Poirot makes a visit to Elephantine Island with Signor Richetti and Mr Ferguson, where he also meets Mrs Allerton.
Christie spent a long time travelling through Egypt, seeing much more of this incredible country than her characters did in Death on the Nile. Initially, when Christie was just 17 years old, she spent winter in Cairo with her mother. They stayed in the Gezirah Palace Hotel, which is today run by Marriott.
On this first visit, Christie visited the Pyramids of Giza and the Cairo Museum, but she was not especially interested in archaeology. Jump ahead 20 years and Christie was married to Max Mallowan, a renowned British archaeologist. She travelled around Egypt with him and even helped him on digs. It was on this second visit to Egypt that Christie’s love for Egypt was born. She visited the sites below — sailing on a classic Nile steamer.
The Valley of the Kings is a collection of rock-cut tombs where many of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs were put to rest. The valley is in the Theban Hills near Luxor. There are too many pharaohs and important figures buried here over the centuries to list all of them here; you’ll just have to visit this incredible site with us to learn more.
Christie’s visit to Abu Simbel inspired her to add the location to her book (discussed above).
Philae is an island on the Nile, near Aswan. After constructing the Aswan Dam, it was decided that the world-famous Philae Temple was in danger of flooding, so it was dismantled and rebuilt on a nearby island called Agilkia. It took three years to carefully move this invaluable temple complex between the two islands.
This was where Christie stopped on her journey through Egypt. It is where she wrote Death on the Nile and you can still stay in her room to this day. From there, you will see the southern tip of Elephantine Island.
There really is only so much we can say here about how special an Agatha Christie tour of Egypt is. There is no substitute for travelling to a place yourself. We hope we’ve inspired one or two readers to finally start planning the Egypt tour of a lifetime, but if you have any questions for us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. And if you’d like to experience Egypt for yourself, request a quote below.