Nile Cruiser SS Sudan That Inspired Agatha Christie Sails on despite Virus

Steam Ship Sudan cruises the Nile in Egypt, a boat built for the Egyptian royal family in 1885 and transformed into a cruise liner in 1921 - AFP
Steam Ship Sudan cruises the Nile in Egypt, a boat built for the Egyptian royal family in 1885 and transformed into a cruise liner in 1921 - AFP
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Nile Cruiser SS Sudan That Inspired Agatha Christie Sails on despite Virus

Steam Ship Sudan cruises the Nile in Egypt, a boat built for the Egyptian royal family in 1885 and transformed into a cruise liner in 1921 - AFP
Steam Ship Sudan cruises the Nile in Egypt, a boat built for the Egyptian royal family in 1885 and transformed into a cruise liner in 1921 - AFP

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 whodunit tells the story of Christie's famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, investigating murder among the well-heeled travelers 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," said Amir Attia, the cruise ship's director, AFP reported.

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".

Passengers are whisked away on Christie's original itinerary, stopping at the same ancient archaeological sites, albeit with a difference -- the liner now runs on diesel and solar power instead of coal.

A staff of 67 keeps the vessel shipshape, and a luxury eight-day trip also including stays in two historic hotels sets travelers back around $4,000, but there is a long waiting list to stay in the Christie cabin.

"There are booking requests for up to two years in advance," he said.

While Egypt's key tourism industry has been hit hard by Covid-19 restrictions -- with revenues slashed by more than a fifth from 2019-2020 -- the ship's staff are insistent the pandemic will not sink the historic vessel.

"My product is unique," Attia said. "Egypt as a tourist destination will never die down."

The SS Sudan has faced crises before.

It was left to rot for decades after World War II, but was rescued and refitted in 1991, before being abandoned and then repaired a second time in 2000.

Last year the boat was initially stuck in port -- but it started operating as soon as rules allowed.

"The SS Sudan was the first cruise ship to re-open for business in October," Attia said.

"We immediately got so many reservations... that we had to knock a few back because we're overbooked."

Staff hope that Christie's story can work its magic again to draw new visitors.

A big-budget film version -- directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, along with Hollywood stars Annette Bening, Russell Brand and Gal Gadot -- is due for release in late 2021, a followup to the 2017 Christie adaption, "Murder on the Orient Express".

The last stop on the cruise is the Old Cataract Hotel, which over the years has hosted guests ranging from Britain's Winston Churchill to Egyptian Nobel Prize for Literature winner, Naguib Mahfouz, said Selim Shawer, the hotel manager.

The hotel too has a small exhibition dedicated to Christie, including the rocking chair and desk where she wrote.

"It is an attraction in itself for fans of Hercule Poirot," said Shawer.

"Even people who are not staying in our hotel come to take photos with the chair."



New T-Rex Ancestor Discovered in Drawers of Mongolian Institute

A life reconstruction of the newly identified dinosaur species Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, which lived 86 million years ago in Mongolia, is seen in this handout illustration released on June 11, 2025. (Julius Csotonyi/Handout via Reuters)
A life reconstruction of the newly identified dinosaur species Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, which lived 86 million years ago in Mongolia, is seen in this handout illustration released on June 11, 2025. (Julius Csotonyi/Handout via Reuters)
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New T-Rex Ancestor Discovered in Drawers of Mongolian Institute

A life reconstruction of the newly identified dinosaur species Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, which lived 86 million years ago in Mongolia, is seen in this handout illustration released on June 11, 2025. (Julius Csotonyi/Handout via Reuters)
A life reconstruction of the newly identified dinosaur species Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, which lived 86 million years ago in Mongolia, is seen in this handout illustration released on June 11, 2025. (Julius Csotonyi/Handout via Reuters)

Misidentified bones that languished in the drawers of a Mongolian institute for 50 years belong to a new species of tyrannosaur that rewrites the family history of the mighty T-Rex, scientists said Wednesday.

This slender ancestor of the massive Tyrannosaurus Rex was around four meters (13 feet) long and weighed three quarters of a ton, according to a new study in the journal Nature.

"It would have been the size of a very large horse," study co-author Darla Zelenitsky of Canada's University of Calgary told AFP.

The fossils were first dug up in southeastern Mongolia in the early 1970s, but at the time were identified as belonging to a different tyrannosaur, Alectrosaurus.

For half a century, the fossils sat in the drawers at the Institute of Paleontology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in the capital Ulaanbaatar.

Then PhD student Jared Voris, who was on a trip to Mongolia, started looking through the drawers and noticed something was wrong, Zelenitsky said.

It turned out the fossils were well-preserved, partial skeletons of two different individuals of a completely new species.

"It is quite possible that discoveries like this are sitting in other museums that just have not been recognized," Zelenitsky added.

They named the new species Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, which roughly means the dragon prince of Mongolia because it is smaller than the "king" T-Rex.

Zelenitsky said the discovery "helped us clarify a lot about the family history of the tyrannosaur group because it was really messy previously".

The T-Rex represented the end of the family line.

It was the apex predator in North America until 66 million years ago, when an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest slammed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Three quarters of life on Earth was wiped out, including all the dinosaurs that did not evolve into birds.

Around 20 million years earlier, Khankhuuluu -- or another closely related family member -- is now believed to have migrated from Asia to North America using the land bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska.

This led to tyrannosaurs evolving across North America.

Then one of these species is thought to have crossed back over to Asia, where two tyrannosaur subgroups emerged.

One was much smaller, weighing under a ton, and was nicknamed Pinocchio rex for its long snout.

The other subgroup was huge and included behemoths like the Tarbosaurus, which was only a little smaller than the T-rex.

One of the gigantic dinosaurs then left Asia again for North America, eventually giving rise to the T-Rex, which dominated for just two million years until the asteroid struck.