Tag Archives: Nile cruise

As you can see from the time above, we’ve been waiting a few hours. Time to get under way again. As I said Monday, before we reached the Esna Lock, we would first pass through a narrow channel on the west side of the Esna Lock Dam. And if don’t know otherwise, you might think this channel is a lock. I know I cetainly did.

But as you approach this channel you’ll notice that there are no gates here. It’s just a straigh pass through the dam as you head toward the canal lock:

The dam is impressive enough…

… but then we approached the second barrier and the canal lock. The two canal locks here are so long that they can each accommodate two riverboats simultaneously. Here’s an example:

In the image below you’ll see the riverboat that preceded us through the dam canal as it heads into the lock. In front of it are two riverboats which you can see are already at a consideraly lower elevation:

Another photo contrasting the differences in height on either end of the lock:

Note the small vendor boats in the photo above. Yep… you can even buy a carpet while you’re transiting the canal. In this next image, we followed that preceding riverboat into the same lock:

Whereupon both riverboats were lowered to the next water level:

After which it’s time to sail once again down the River Nile:

Our total time between pushing toward the shore south of the dam to await our turn until this point would’ve been about 4½ hours. Make sure you wear a hat and use the sunscreen while you wait!

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Friday, 28 February, and we’re heading north on the River Nile aboard Jaz Cruise‘s Jaz Celebrity. We would soon be approaching the city of Esna and awaiting our turn to pass through the Esna Lock, about 100 miles/162km from where we embarked on this cruise in Aswan. As our riverboat approached Esna, we passed some impressive palms and sand-covered hills on the starboard side:

Oddly enough, even though we were almost a hundred miles downstream from Aswan, we passed a dilapidated sign on these hills that appeared to “welcom” (sic) us to that city now far to our south:

So, I did some research while writing today’s article and found that this was indeed the case. I found several images of this signage taken in better days:

Step past the lady above checking her cell phone, get out from beneath the shading awnings, and peer over the railings for a better image of those hills:

The wait to get through the Esna Lock can be long. But our riverboat did not just wait in the river. We headed toward the east shore and pushed the bow right up against some farmland. We were even offered a sample of what one of the farmer’s was growing, but neither Ursula nor I can recall what it was.

Prior to reaching the lock, our riverboat first passed through a narrow channel on the west side of the dam located to the south. It’s a unique setup, and at first I thought the narrow dam channel was also a lock from its appearnce. Below is a Google Maps image of the setup. And in the lower left corner you’ll see a riverboat about to enter the dam channel:

On Wednesday I’ll present to you the actual lock and our transit of it. Until then, here’s some photos taken of Esna as we awaited our turn. You’ll notice I included the time of the photo to show you how long we waited to get through the lock (hint: hours):

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)