Voiliers
arabes dans le Nil, by Zangaki.With the annual fluctuations in the
level of the Nile due to the inundation, the prime sailing time for large
vessels was--before the construction of the High Dam at Aswan--limited to
the six months between July and December. For this reason, a year-round
use of small boats was often preferred. Even during the reign of Ramesses
II, the fleet that carried sandstone blocks from the quarries of Gebel
Silsileh (near Kom Ombo) to Thebes for the construction of the Ramesseum,
the king's mortuary temple, consisted of small craft, each of which
carried only 5 to 7 blocks, about 15 tons. Attested already in antiquity,
the triangular lateen sail was to become during Byzantine times and the
early Middle Ages the most important sail of the Mediterranean world. The
tall, narrow lateen--perhaps derived from a braided-up square sail with a
slanted yard for sailing close-hauled in a hard wind--is well suited to
catching the breezes skimming above the Nile between the looming desert
escarpments.
Signed at lower left "Zangaki"; Caption at lower right "Nr. 411
Voiliers arabe [sic.] dans le Nil". Bibliog. 'Souvenir of Egypt:
Monuments, Temples, Mosques, and Scenes from Every-day Life (Cairo, George
Ch. Dovas: 1898), plate 44 'Boats on the Nile' (version not signed).