Sailing the Nile Aboard a Traditional Dahabiya

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We follow in the footsteps of Egypt’s 19th-century explorers and set sail on a Nile cruise aboard a beautiful, traditional dahabiya sailing boat.

We couldn’t blame Enrique for trying. Our dahabiya host was determined to get us off the boat at least once a day to experience ‘the real Egypt’ as we sailed up the Nile on a five day journey from Esna to Aswan in Egypt’s south.

The thing was, having settled very quickly into a blissful reverie of sleeping, eating and chilling on the cushion-strewn deck of our elegant sailboat, we were very hard pressed to do anything at all.

The cushion-strewn top deck of the Assouan, a traditional dahabiya nile cruise.
The irresistible top deck of our dahabiya.

But Enrique won the day, every day, by sheer force of personality, and not a little guilt on our parts about passing up the opportunity to see the temples, tombs and villages that have watched the ebb and flow of this mighty river for thousands of years.

Having experienced the magic of a Nile cruise on one of the river’s many floating hotels on my first trip to Egypt, I was adamant that John and I include a river trip on this visit, but that this time it would be slower, feel more like a voyage, and engage more with the life, stories and scenery of the ancient river Nile.

A felucca, perhaps? As romantic as these little sailing boats are, especially at sunset, we weren’t keen on living aboard one for three days, doing our ablutions in the river reeds.

The dahabiya though, traditional mode of river transport for the intrepid travellers of the 19th century, was right up our alley (or waterway as it were).

A dahabiya Nile cruise is a wonderful opportunity to slow the pace of a trip through Egypt and see life on the river close up.

Unlike the big cruises, these beautifully appointed wooden sailing boats can moor away from towns in quiet places and visit some of the Nile’s smaller and lesser known ancient sites. 

So it was that we found ourselves on a truly unforgettable Nile cruise adventure, sailing up the Nile aboard the beautiful dahabiya boat, the Assouan.

Red and white sails fill with the wind on a traditional dahabiya sailing boat in Egypt.
Our dahabiya beauty, Assouan, perfect for a slow meander up the Nile.

We were very ready for the break, after the intensity of Cairo and Alexandria, and four jam-packed days on the temples, tombs and baksheesh circuit of Luxor, renowned as the ‘hassle capital of Egypt’.

Hassle aside though, Luxor – ancient Thebes – is an archaeological treasure chest par excellence and we planned our visit diligently to ensure we got to see as much as we could without succumbing to temple and tomb fatigue.

Our first day, after arriving on the overnight train from Cairo and dropping our bags at our charming mud-brick guesthouse on the West Bank of the Nile, we returned to the east side of the river to take on the Temples of Karnak, the world’s second largest ancient religious complex (Angkor Wat has the title apparently).

Couple smiles in front of the ruins of the great Temples of Karnak in Egypt.
Temple time!

We’d intended to go it alone at Karnak but on a whim, engaged a guide at the site. Mr Abdelrahim turned out to be worth his weight in lapis lazuli as he showed us the myriad hidden secrets (things we’d have never noticed or found on our own) of the huge temple precinct of Amun-Re.

He also shared with us his own very plausible theory on the ancient colour palette used at Karnak; it’s a secret though, we were sworn to silence.

Secret corners (and colours) of Karnak.

Over the ensuing days, in between relaxing on the roof terrace at our guesthouse – with its views of the Theban mountains and the Temple of Medinet Habu – we visited the Valley of the Queens, the Valley of the Kings, Deir al-Medina (the tomb workers’ village) and the Tombs of the Nobles, clocking up 11 tombs…and 11 tomb guardians keen for baksheesh.

Tomb entrances scatter the desert floor on the West Bank in Egypt.
We beat the heat with early morning starts for tombing on the West Bank.

While all the tombs we visited were extraordinary, each offering its own wow-factor of colour preservation or architecture or scale, our favourites were truly spectacular.

At the Tombs of the Nobles, Sennofer’s tomb had us gaping at a vine and grape-covered ceiling (a man after our own hearts!) and vivid scenes of him with his leading ladies.

At Deir al-Medina, the exquisite colours and scenes in the tomb of Sennedjem proved the master artist left his best work for his own resting place.

And at the legendary Valley of the Kings, Ramses VI’s tomb, with its huge, superbly decorated burial chamber, left us speechless; it was well worth the additional entry fee.

The vibrant colours and scenes in the tombs will have to live on in our memories though – no cameras allowed.

When not climbing into tombs, we were exploring the West Bank’s impressive monuments, like the terraced Temple of Hatshepsut with its soaring cliff backdrop.

The vast temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt.
A temple fit for a Queen.

We visited the Ramesseum, where a restoration team was taking great care to mechanically lift a van-sized block of the fallen Ramses II colossus. And the legendary, 3,400-year-old Colossi of Memnon, built for Amenhotep III to guard the entrance to his enormous, mostly vanished mortuary temple.

The giant Colossi of Memnon guard what was once the entryway to the vast mortuary temple of Amenhotep III.
John and the Colossi.

We also paid a daily visit to the temple just near our guesthouse, our favourite temple after Karnak: the excellent Medinat Habu, where huge pylon reliefs depict scribes counting the hands and castrated bits of defeated enemies.

Wall carving in the temple of Medinet Habu in Luxor shows scribes collecting castrated parts of fallen enemies.
Grim task: scribes counting man parts post-battle.

Consequently, by the time we boarded the dahabiya at Esna for our Nile cruise, we felt we were good for little more than drinking tea in a hammock and watching the Nile slide by.

In all fairness, there was plenty of time to do nothing. John’s nose was stuck in a book for much of the downtime, while I was quite content to sit on deck and watch life play out on the river.

Daily Nile cruise viewing.

Visiting during a turbulent time in Egypt, there were just seven of us on a boat made for 16, and we were pampered and spoiled by the charming crew of local Luxor lads throughout the trip.

I ‘learned the ropes’ sailing the boat under the teasing supervision of the captain (I won’t be skippering a dahabiya anytime soon), and John played football with the crew on a little strip of land among the cows.

I literally learn the ropes while John plays some barefoot soccer by the Nile.

We wandered through crops and banana plantations, and visited several impressive temples, admiring carved columns like those in the beautiful hypostyle hall at the Temple of Khnum in Esna.

Carved columns in the hypostyle hall at Temple of Esna, Eypt
Ancient columns stand the test of time at Esna. 

We also explored the extraordinary rock-cut nobles’ tombs and remains of the ancient town of Al-Kab, where a 2,500-year-old, 12-metre thick mud-brick wall still surrounds the ruins.

The 2,500-year-old brick city wall of Al-Kab still stands in Egypt.
Always was a sucker for a good old wall.

Our unsuspecting group was charged here by a gaggle of raucous kids trying to sell us woven placemats. We spent the entire walk back to the boat exchanging names: ‘What’s your name?! Danielle! What’s your name? Mena! What’s your name? Danielle! What’s your name? Fatima!’.

Mobbed by a group of cute kids.
‘What’s your name?!’

Perhaps my favourite Nile cruise stop though (and there were several), was the quarries of Gebel Silsila, where mini shrines, temples and graffiti carved by workers thousands of years ago scatter a huge site of quarried cliffs, and chisel marks look so fresh it seems the workers only downed tools yesterday.

Shadows on the quarry walls at Gebel Silsila, Egypt
Nighttime in the ancient quarries of Gebel Silsila.

Another excursion off the boat saw us taking tea with a local family in a small river-side village.

Once the girls and I got over our shyness with each other, they took me indoors and ‘made me up’ a la local wedding style. I may have emerged looking a little retro for my tastes, but we all had a good time, despite the language barrier.

Throughout our Nile cruise, the crew served up delicious feasts of local food like Nile perch and we talked into the late hours with our fellow dahabiyans.

Enrique and the crew had to practically drag us off the boat on our last day.  It’s a journey we would happily make again and again.

Hopefully one day we will. Next time though I’m not getting off.

Good to know

Cruising the Nile: Sailing up the Nile aboard a traditional dahabiya is a truly unique luxury experience. There are a number of companies running multi-day dahabiya Nile cruises with boats and rooms at different price points. We travelled with Nour el-Nil aboard the Assouan.

Where does the cruise start and finish: Our Nile cruise departed from the town of Esna and finished in Aswan. Esna is a little over 50-kilometres south of Luxor in Egypt’s south and can be reached by taxi from Luxor.

Getting to and from Luxor and Aswan: Luxor has an international airport, and overnight trains also travel there from Cairo. A train is the easiest means of returning from Aswan to Luxor or Cairo for a flight after the cruise.

Visiting Luxor: The World Heritage site of Ancient Thebes (Luxor) and its necropolis is truly epic and deserves at least a couple of days to it justice. The west bank alone offers a wealth of temples and tombs – have a plan and try to beat the heat and the crowds by visiting sites early morning or late afternoon.

Breaking it up also helps avoid temple and tomb fatigue, a very real risk when you’re faced with so much extraordinary art and architecture (and tomb ‘guardians’ seeking tips/baksheesh). Hiring a taxi for a couple of hours is a good way to get between some of the more spread out sites.

Staying in Luxor: There’s plenty of accommodation in Luxor, but for something a bit different, we stayed at guesthouse, Beit Sabee, on the rural West Bank. With views over the desert and the temple of Medinet Habu, it was one of the most evocative places we’ve stayed.

Is it safe to travel to Egypt? Certain areas of Egypt like the Western Desert have government travel warnings for all but essential travel, however the tourist areas along the Nile river, such as Luxor, Aswan, the Valley of the Kings and Abu Simbel are not included in these round-ups. Always check the latest information with your country’s foreign office before you go.

From a personal perspective, we have travelled to Egypt a number of times and we’ve never felt unsafe. You can expect some heavy hassle by sellers and ‘site guardians’ at some ancient sites, and you should exercise all the usual cautions with your personal safety and belongings, but the Egyptian people are friendly and welcoming, and with Egypt’s tourism industry having taken a tumble over recent years, the economy needs tourism now more than ever.


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Last updated: 18 June, 2017

2 thoughts on “Sailing the Nile Aboard a Traditional Dahabiya”

  1. Are there a choice of boats. We want good quality on small boats from 28th October to 1st November. What are the prices. We want two cabins
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Hi Keith, we travelled with the company Nour el Nil, which you can find online – they have a fleet of beautiful dahabiya boats with cabins at different price points. Their website has lots more information. Happy travelling – Egypt is an amazing destination.

      Reply

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