Our boats

Time seems to go by so slowly while sailing away in the cosy and charming Dahabieh cabins. The rooms are small inviting en-suite rooms with boat beds covered with blue and beige Egyptian cotton. Passengers spend most of their cruising time on the oriental lounge and cushion-stern deck of the elegant sailboat. The Dahabieh is a sailing houseboat, that originally comes from “Dahab”; meaning gold but also the sacred boat on which the god Amon navigated from the Karnak temple to Luxor during big celebrations. Since the earliest times, travel could be done only by boat, the flooding of the Nile didn’t allow people to establish a true system of roads along the River. The solar barque of Khufu is certainly the first known form of Dahabieh. In Roman Egypt, the Dahabiehs sailboats were used by the Roman Prefects. Then 19th Century was considered the Golden age of the Dahabiehs where they were used by Pashas, rich merchants and later on travelers seeking to explore the biggest archaeological sites of the Nile Valley. In 1870, Thomas Cook, becoming aware of the difficulties of travel in Egypt. Thus comes the idea of organizing cruises for wealthy travelers. He chartered two Dahabiehs to ascend the Nile, which serve as floating hotels. Bet won the English Bourgeoisie has conquered! It was at this time that tourism was born in Egypt and followed by mass tourism started, therefore, by the now-famous Thomas Cook