As our ship slows to pass through the lock at Esna, 35 miles south of Luxor, the pirates strike. An organised squadron of bearded men wearing long Egyptian galabeyas, they row their wooden dinghies alongside the ship and tie on with ropes. But these so-called “Pirates of the Nile” aren’t armed with cutlasses or wearing eyepatches, they’re vendors laden with towels and tablecloths. “Hello! Egyptian cotton!” they yell, as we watch from the top deck.
With the aim to rival any Test cricketer’s they hurl their wares up, and we catch and examine them, tossing items back or keeping something and dropping money in return. It’s a chaotic and brilliant window into local life – as much part of the story of Egypt as the tombs and temples I’ve come to see.
I’m exploring the Nile on Viking’s 12-day Pharaohs & Pyramids tour, starting in Cairo before cruising 170 miles south from Luxor to Aswan and back again. I will be ticking off iconic sites like Karnak, the Valley of the Kings and Philae along the way. Since the time of the Pharaohs this has been a classic route, but in 2025 it’s evolving, and I’m one of the first to experience how new infrastructure – and Viking’s expertise – are giving this time-worn journey an upgrade.
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Our guide for the adventure is Suzy Atallah, a no-nonsense Egyptologist with a brain full of facts and a schoolmistress-like manner: affectionate yet firm. She’s expert at herding groups of wayward tourists who don’t listen, rolls her eyes constantly, and jokingly threatens to ban people who misbehave. “Yalla bina! Let’s go!” she cries with a smile, and I often hear “Where has Bella gone now?” in my wireless earpiece as I wander off to take another photo.
Suzy efficiently shepherds us around the pyramids at Saqqara and Giza (“If you say they were built by aliens, you can get off the bus”) – but since my last visit, in 2023, Giza’s had a $51m revamp. A new visitor centre opened in May, along with shops, cafes, and a hop-on-hop-off shuttle bus. Private vehicles and buses are now mostly banned – unless you’re with Viking who have privileged access, meaning we get to skip the queues. Hawkers and camel touts are now corralled into one area, allowing us to explore the monuments in peace – a relief after my last visit when I couldn’t walk 10 metres without someone trying to coax me onto a camel.
During my visit in the summer, moves were also underway at the Egyptian Museum. Faded and crumbling, with yellowed glass cases crammed with over 170,000 artefacts, many still described on typewritten library cards, this historic building has barely changed since Howard Carter brought the treasures of Tutankhamun here in the early 1930s. We marvel at the boy king’s legendary gold death mask and nested gilt coffins – but we are among the last to do so here. They are to be moved with great fanfare to take pride of place in the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM).
Decorated with pyramids and hieroglyphs, this £1bn temple to Egypt’s ancient past partially opened at the end of 2024 after two decades of construction. As I walk into its vast, cathedral-like atrium, past a 3,200-year-old, 11-metre-tall statue of Rameses II, it’s clear it was worth the wait. The star attractions – two galleries of Tutankhamun’s treasures, many on public display for the first time – aren’t ready when I visit, but were set to be unveiled as part of the GEM’s official launch which happened on 1 November 2025. Though there’s still plenty to admire: statues of kings and priests, exquisite carvings, and cases full of jewellery and homewares, 3000-year-old mementos of daily life that you don’t see when you visit the temples.
These, of course, have their own magic, as we discover when we fly to Luxor to board the Viking Aton – a Scandi-chic floating hotel with 41 elegant staterooms, most with private verandas. The next eight days are a conveyor belt of Egypt’s Greatest Hits: getting lost in a forest of 134 columns at Karnak, soaring over the Valley of the Kings in a hot air balloon at sunrise, tasting Egyptian dishes like braised perch with okra or dough fritters with orange blossom — or simply relaxing on deck watching the river. “I had no idea Egypt would be this green,” marvels Beverley from the USA, as we pass palm groves, grazing water buffalo, and lush reed beds where herons pose, as motionless as their avian ancestors carved into the temple walls.
Most Nile cruises only travel south from Luxor, but Viking takes us on an exclusive detour 40 miles north to Dendera, to the Temple of Hathor, goddess of love and music. Its beautifully-restored blue ceiling, decorated with figures of gods and signs of the zodiac, is one of the most stunning artworks in all of Egyptology.
There’s more artistic wonder in the Valley of the Kings, where our tour includes the big-ticket tombs of Seti I and, of course, Tutankhamun. Widely considered the most beautiful, Seti’s is a subterranean Sistine Chapel, every surface intricately painted with colours still glowing after 3,300 years. In Tut’s tomb we are among the last to see his mummy lying in its glass case before it too makes its journey to the GEM.
But it’s not all about Ancient Egypt: we explore modern life too. In Aswan, we visit the High Dam, an engineering masterpiece built to control the annual flooding of the Nile; we admire colourful artworks on the walls of a Nubian village, and visit a school supported by Viking. Under Suzy’s expert guidance we learn to haggle for beaded jewellery and carved alabaster bowls in the markets: “If I say it’s a good price, don’t buy it,” she warns. “But if I say very good price, then you can buy.” And on our way back to Luxor we pass again through Esna lock, where the pirates are waiting for us. This time, we’re ready.
How to do it
Viking’s 12-day/11 night Pharaohs and Pyramids cruise-tour includes return flights from select UK airports, return internal flights from Cairo to Luxor, ground transfers in Egypt, four nights at a first-class Cairo hotel, eight days on board in a standard stateroom, all on board meals including wine, beer and soft drinks with lunch and dinner, included excursions and visits to Unesco sites, complimentary wifi, onboard gratuities and evening entertainment and enrichment talks. Guests are accompanied throughout by Viking's expert Egyptologists. Prices start from £5,495 for a 2027 summer sailing, based on current availability.
Bella Falk was hosted by Viking Cruises.
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