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Water Transport
The Nile and its canals provided the usual means
of traveling in the Delta and along the valley. The Nile, the
country’s natural highway, was used for transporting people and all
kinds of cargo as well as for some religious processions when the
god’s statue was taken from one temple to another as part of a
festival. Even in predynastic times these river journeys had been
undertaken, and a special category of pottery known as “decorated
ware” shows painted representations of boats with banks of oars that
carried the god’s portable shrine.
Boats on the Nile There were many different types of boat on the Nile developed to meet a variety of needs; these ranged from the skiffs made from bundles of papyrus to the elaborate ships with cabins and banks of oars that existed back to the Predynastic Period. Ships were built for warfare, but here we will focus on those used for trade and peacetime transport. . PAPYRUS The papyrus barks were the earliest boats built in Egypt. In effect they were rafts made of bundles of reeds bound together so that they were wider in the middle than at the ends. The smallest versions accommodated two people whereas the larger ones in which several layers of papyrus reed were bound together had space for more passengers and even an animal. The reeds were firmly held together with ropes, and a rush mat was sometimes placed on the floor. These boats, mainly used by fishermen and hunters in the shallow waters of the marshes, were propelled along with poles or short oars with broad blades. The prow lay flat on the water, and the stern stood high out of the river so that it could readily be pushed along or edged off the sandbanks. . WOOD When they required larger boats, the Egyptians had to use wood. There was an extensive boat building industry as early as the Old Kingdom. A variety of craft was developed for which local woods such as acacia were often used. Since the Nile is difficult to navigate because of the constantly shifting sandbanks, it was necessary to build wooden ships with a shallow draft so that they did not become lodged in the sand and, to balance this, the part of the boat that stood above the water could not be built too high. In the Old Kingdom wooden boats were propelled by wooden oars that often had a narrow pointed blade; these were fastened to the ship by a rope and held in oarlocks. Large steering oars (one or more, depending on the size of the vessel) were positioned at the helm where they were also fixed into an oarlock and held by a rope. These were used instead of a rudder at this period. Many craft also had sails. The swiftest boats were probably built of pine imported from Syria. They were long and, unlike other vessels, their prow and stern were not raised high out of the water. They were used for transporting important dignitaries and had a cabin on deck made of plaited matting or linen where the owner could sit during his journey. The crew for these vessels included men who handled the mast and sails (when the wind dropped and the sail was lowered, the yard and mast were taken down and wrapped in the sail and placed on top of the cabin); rowers who faced the stern and pulled through the water; and a pilot who measured the water’s depth with a pole and shouted instructions to the sailors and also oversaw the landing arrangements. In addition there were large squat transport vessels that were incurved at the bow and stern. Most of the space at the ends was used for animals and goods, and most of the deck space was taken up with a main and second cabin, so the crew, consisting of three or four rowers and two steersmen, had to perform their duties in very uncomfortable conditions. Besides these boats used for transporting cattle, horses, and other commodities, there were barges for carrying grain and stones and smaller boats that were sometimes used to carry additional provisions for the larger vessels they accompanied. Some of the large freight vessels, which were too heavy to be rowed or to move without assistance, were either towed (when weather conditions prevented them from sailing) by the sailors or by tugboats steered with long oars. By the Middle Kingdom improvements in boat building included the replacement of steering oars by a large rudder, which the helmsman operated by means of a rope and the use of a single pole mast instead of two slender masts fixed together at the top by a rope; there were also changes to the sails and rigging. From this time onward there were few innovations in the design and building of transport and merchant vessels until the Saite Period (Dynasty 26) when Greek and Phoenician mercenaries introduced new ideas. In the New Kingdom, however, the shape and size of the sail was changed, and whereas in the Old Kingdom its breadth had been less than its height, it had now reached such a breadth that it was necessary for two poles to be joined together to provide a yard that was now double the height of the mast. Also traveling boats used by the wealthy now had elaborate decoration; not only was the cabin higher but it had a front door and the walls were hung with tapestries. .
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Sea Ships
In addition to using river transport, the Egyptians also had seagoing craft that sailed to Byblos on the Syrian coast and along the Red Sea coast to Punt, although this appears to mark the limit of their naval activity. Ships headed for Punt are represented in scenes at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri in the famous description of the expedition sent there in her reign. This fleet of five ships were sailing vessels, also fitted out with oars. About sixty-five feet in length, they were long boats with sharply pointed bows and a papyrus design on the sterns. Each had thirty rowers and very large sails and closely resembled the contemporary river boats. These so-called Byblos ships were used on coastal journeys and appear to have plied the sea route from Byblos to Punt. They traveled via the Delta through the arm of the Nile as far as Bubastis and then passed by canal to the Wadi Tumilat and across the Bitter Lakes to reach the Gulf of Suez. On some occasions they were possibly manned by mixed crews of Syrian and Egyptian sailors. The Egyptians therefore traveled to other countries for trade purposes or, occasionally, to support the army’s campaigns. They never launched major naval expeditions, however, until the Late Period when this was largely undertaken by foreign mercenaries. Again, the geography of Egypt did not encourage naval exploration or endeavors. On the Nile the cataracts made it difficult to travel south and the harbors on the Red Sea where the Byblos boats awaited the expeditions could only be reached after crossing the Eastern Desert for four days. And until Alexandria became the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, there were no major ports on the north Delta coast that gave ready access to the Mediterranean sea routes. Nevertheless, although opportunities for foreign travel were limited, within Egypt there was a lively river traffic that flourished at all periods, with royal, temple, and private fleets moving people and goods around the country. .
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Water Transport
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