On a sweltering late-summer evening last year in southern Egypt, the country’s most storied hotel was bustling once again, hosting personalities with ambitions of shaping the world. In the more than a century since it opened, Aswan’s Old Cataract, perched on a rocky outcrop on the Nile River’s eastern bank, has welcomed the likes of Winston Churchill, Jimmy Carter and Tsar Nicholas II. For Agatha Christie, in whose former suite you can now stay for upwards of $8,000 a night, it was the inspiration for one of her most famous works of detective fiction, Death on the Nile.
The guests were more circumspect. More than a dozen high-level officials from the United Arab Emirates wearing flowing white robes arrived for a private dinner, led by a security detail that cordoned off the restaurant, according to four people who were there and requested anonymity to discuss a private gathering. Outdoor air-conditioning units were set up on the terrace so the elite diners could take in the nighttime Nile views in comfort as they sampled grilled meats and sipped tea. After about two hours, they left.