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"View Slideshow\n\nThe river Nile has captivated Westerners since Alexander the Great wrested Egypt from the Persians around 330 B.C. About 200 years ago Napoleon invaded Egypt and ordered French scientists to measure, draw and document the ancient sites along its banks. They outdid themselves, and the Nile has been a destination ever since.\n\nWho would not be intrigued by the 4,160-mile-long river, with its ancient mud-brick villages and groves of date palms lining the sandy banks, feluccas sailing by and, in the distance, views of ancient colossi, obelisks and pyramids?\n\nToday nearly 300 cruise boats ply the Nile to visit the temples at Philae, Abu Simbel and Luxor. The Oberoi Zahra is one of the few to have a contemporary interior. (The others tend to be Victorian or Edwardian in style, the more old-fashioned the better, with dark mahogany paneling, wicker furniture and lots of carpeting.)\n\nThe Zahra makes seven-day trips from Aswan to Luxor (or the reverse), a distance of 130 miles. It has 27 large cabins (most of its competitors have 50) as well as a library, salon, theater, gym, barrestaurant, full-service spa and game room, all strictly modern.\n\nP. R. S. Oberoi, chairman and CEO of the Oberoi Hotel and Resort Group, deliberately avoided traditional British d\u00E9cor when he commissioned the Zahra. \"Mr. Oberoi has a great vision about hospitality, and it was very clear he wanted the boat to be contemporary,\" says Monika Zeiler-Lim, the German-born partner (and wife) of Singaporean designer Lim Ho Guan. The duo designed the Zahra's interior. \"Almost all Nile boats look like floating buildings, and we were definitely not going to do a pharaonic barge or a colonial-era steamer.\"\n\nZeiler-Lim and her husband were hired before the Zahra was built, so they had a lot of input into its design, even outside, specifying a crisp white for the steel hull, large blue-tinted windows that slide open on each floor, and teak decks. \"We wanted the boat to have very clear lines and look like a yacht,\" she says.\n\nThere were some growing pains because the Zahra was their first modern ship. \"From a technical point of view, it was a challenge,\" Zeiler-Lim says. \"Because the boat is metal, you don't have thick constructed walls where services like pipes, wiring and plumbing can be hidden. Nor do you have high ceilings where you put ducts and pipes. So it was a question of finding solutions without compromising our aesthetic point of view.\"\n\nThat point of view is decidedly minimalist. Materials are luxurious but understated: maple, marble, mosaic tile, steel, glass and leather. \"We chose a clean design language, with high-quality materials, well-worked-out details and certain elements\u2014finishes, colors, lights\u2014that carry through all the spaces,\" says Zeiler-Lim.\n\nThe partners have worked out of London, Germany, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur for 25 years, so they easily obtain materials worldwide. In recent years they have designed hotel interiors in India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. \"In appearance, the Zahra isn't so different. We use international sources appropriate for an international clientele.\" (About 75 percent of the passengers are European; 13 percent are American.)\n\nThe two-story reception area sets the tone, with its huge widows, gleaming white Carrara marble floor, stainless-steel staircase and leather-lined steel columns and Mies van der Rohe\u2013style daybeds.\n\n\"The reception lobby is meant to be crisp, light and floating, with glass treads on the stainless-steel staircase, illuminated display stands and a large German chandelier to add a bit of glamour,\" she says.\n\nFor the cabins, they chose maple flooring from Germany, luxury fabrics from Austria and India, and fixtures, chairs and sofas from Italy.\n\nThe restaurant, accented with orange draperies and lampshades, is the only one on a Nile cruiser that serves each meal \u00E0 la carte (as opposed to buffet style). \"The menu for every lunch and dinner is different; no dishes are repeated,\" says Tapan Piplani, the ship's manager. \"The cuisine is international with a bit of Egyptian and Indian influence.\" Here the window height was lowered to allow passengers to watch the scenery as they glide by at nine knots per hour.\n\nIf the Zahra's d\u00E9cor seems quiet, it's purposefully so. It is intended to provide a respite after daily excursions to temples, tombs and local villages. \"One thing we clearly wanted to give priority to, as well as providing the best possible environment and comfort for guests, was the beauty of the wonders outside,\" says Zeiler-Lim. \"What's important are the ancient sites, the magic of the Nile and the stars in the night sky.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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