Nile Cruise — Finally Casting Off for the Cruise

After overnighting in Aswan and visiting Abu Simbel, we made it back to Jaz Cruises‘ riverboat Jaz Celebrity to begin our Nile cruise to Luxor on 27 February in the afternoon. The pictures you’ll see today and Wednesday weren’t all taken on that day, but were spread out over the course of the cruise. I did this to give you the flavor of this segment of the River Nile, so I hope you won’t mind the jumping around. And much of that flavor comes from the traditional Nile sailboat, the felucca. The most distinctive and recognizable feature of the feluca would, of course, be the triangular lateen sail. You’ll find some Nile feluccas may have two of them, but most often you’ll see feluccas sporting only a single lateen:

You’ll also see a lot of riverboats plying the River Nile. Indeed, these boats are probably the second most common vessels you’ll see after the feluccas.

By the way, if you’ve never traveled by riverboat, you may be wondering how these things dock along the banks considering the limited number of mooring points available. And how do you get load passengers onto three or four boats when there’s only one moor? Well, you do it by boarding the boat alongside the shore, then passing through it and each subsequent boat until you arrive at your temporary home. Look at this next image. If you’re traveling on the boat on the right, you enter the boat on the far left and traverse through the two boats in the middle to gain access:

But feluccas and riverboats are not the only things to see and admire. You’ll find many a spendid mosque:

Are you wondering how a riverboat appears while under way? Wonder no more:

Now for some random River Nile photographs:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)