Come Sail Away

The Nile River, Southern Egypt

Touring Egypt 13: Sailboats always attract my eye (usually, my lens as well). Egyptian feluccas seem to me both exotic and beautiful, especially when their sails pick up the light of the sun in the terrifically scenic Nile River valley. These sail-powered work boats are numerous in the southern Nile. The evening our cruise from Luxor docked in Aswan, we were treated to a fabulous view of seemingly hundreds of feluccas sailing around the harbor in the warm setting sunlight. As the sun began to set, the boats up-river set their sails to join the flotilla in Aswan harbor (photo above).

We were moored near the outer edge of the cruise ship docks, giving us a terrific sunset views both down into Aswan harbor and up the river in the other direction. There was a veritable felucca flotilla in harbor, tacking back and forth across the river with the city in the background. More boats joined the scene throughout the sunset hour. As I watched, a small felucca on his way to join the flotilla came close by our ship, providing the perfect subject to illustrate the beautiful Nile sunset as it warmed his sails and hull and cast a golden glow across the boats and city beyond. As the sky and city turned golden, the river turned a deep blue, reflecting the darkening sky.

Before Aswan, our cruise ship had stopped at Kom Ombo (site of another unusual and photogenic temple — coming soon to a blog near you). We set sail from the temple early in the morning and soon passed a small village where three work boats were just preparing to set sail. The river was completely calm, the sky was clear, and the world seemed at peace. I was able to catch the feluccas as they left port, their sails reflecting in the calm river.

(Top [“Returning” at sunset in Aswan]: Nikon D200, Nikkor zoom at 170mm, ISO 250, f/6.3, 1/100 sec.)

(Middle [“Sunset Sail” in Aswan harbor]: Same camera and lens at 200mm, ISO 250, f/6.3, 1/125 sec.)

(Bottom [“Off to Work” south of Kom Ombo]: Nikon D200, Nikkor zoom at 56mm, ISO 400, f/8, 1/320 sec.)
.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 14:25 PM. It is filed under Land & Air, thePhotoTourist and tagged with Aswan, destination, Egypt, evening, felucca, feluccas, flotilla, Kom Ombo, morning, Nile, Nile River, not_uw, sail, sailboat, sailboats, sails, sunrise, sunset, Touring Egypt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.