Viking River Cruises has launched Viking Osiris, a new ship for cruises on the Nile, in a ceremony with multiple links to the distant and recent past. The new ship has fewer but larger staterooms than Viking’s usual river cruiser.
The ship was christened by George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, whose great-grandfather, the 5th earl, sponsored and participated in the 1922 Howard Carter expedition that explored King Tut’s tomb, which is, of course, along the route Osiris will travel.
The earl is also the owner of Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey was filmed, and which features in a number of Viking tours, a connection that started when Viking became widely-known in America as the sponsor of Downton Abbey’s broadcasts.
