Sunrise Felucca Sail on the Nile in Cairo, Egypt
Sailing on a Traditional Lateen Boat on Egypt's Nile
Sep 29, 2009
The Nile River runs straight through the middle of downtown Cairo. Today, the river's banks are lined with high-end Cairo hotels such as the Hilton, the Sheraton, Marriott, and Intercontinental. But the traditional calls to prayer that drift over the pre-dawn waters, and the domes and minarets of the city's many mosques, offer a traditional counterpoint to Cairo's modern hotels.
There's another traditional element on the river: the lateen-rigged feluccas, the traditional sailing vessels that have changed very little in hundreds, even thousands. of years. Today, the main "cargo" of a felucca is tourists, who experience the magic of the Nile in the pre-dawn hours, as the sun slowly rises over a city that is both ancient and modern.
The Felucca, Traditional Boat of the River Nile
The felucca is a traditional wooden boat of a type that has has sailed the waterways of the Middle East and the Red Sea for millennia. The lateen sail is a triangular sail mounted at an angle to the mast. The felucca is thus related to (although much smaller than) the dhows that have traded in the Indian Ocean, from Zanzibar to Goa and beyond, for thousands of years.
Feluccas date from Pharaonic times. Ancient Egyptians believed that an after-life felucca sailed on sunbeams, carrying the Pharaoh Cheops through the skies. Napoleon's officers rode in a felucca to explore the Upper reaches of the Nile, and later, rulers and celebrities including Lord Kitchener, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, and General Montgomery, sailed on fellucas to visit the temples and ruins of Luxor and Karnack on the Nile.
Sunrise Felucca Nile River Cruises in Cairo and on the Upper Nile
Traditionally, feluccas have been used for trade and travel; today, they are also used for Egypt's thriving tourism industry, offering Nile cruises ranging from an hour or two to several days.
In Cairo, sunrise felucca rides are easy to arrange through tour companies and hotels in Cairo. The boats are aligned along the Nile a five-minute taxi or bus ride from Cairo's major down-town hotels.
The boats push off from the dock just before sunrise and get underway via motor. Once free of the confined spaces of the dock area (and the other feluccas), the engines are cut and the sails are raised.
The river is quiet in the mornings, populated mostly by tourists, a few fishermen, and occasional teams of scullers (both men and women) rowing along the river. Unlike their American counterparts, the female scullers wear clothing that covers their arms and legs, and traditional headscarves.
The vast majority of felucca rides are hour-long sunrise or sunset tours. Upstream, near Aswan and Luxor, feluccas are commonly used as a means of transportation, taking tourists from one side of the Niles to the other to visit various attractions.
Multi-day felucca excursions are also possible. Although certainly not as luxurious as the riverboat cruises that ply the Nile. A felucca ride is a chance to experience the river as it has been experienced for more than five thousand years: under sail, at the pace of the river and the wind.
For more articles on Egypt travel, please see Resources About Egypt
 |
 |
 |
 |
