Photos of Egyptian Holiday Cruise Boats, arabaya, buses, faluka, railway engines seen around Egypt.

These various modes of transport were all spotted and photographed around Luxor, Aswan and Cairo (and the River Nile) whilst we were on our Egyptian Holiday.

Egypt - Luxor - River Nile Cruise Boats, Buses and Barges and train Photographs: February 2006. Whilst on holiday in Luxor we got around quite a lot and spotted several interesting "mechanical..." things to photograph - arabayas (the local buses), caleches and a nice old Lister engine which was being used to pump water into the fields for irrigation. We also found a couple of railway engines plus some carriages to photo at Luxor station and out in the countryside several narrow gauge railway wagons loaded up with cane and later we were lucky enought to also see the small engine. There are of course lots of different boats and barges etc. moving around on the River Nile at Luxor - needless to say there are quite a few photos of them below. Also we enjoyed a day trip from Luxor up to Quena Dendarah on a small cruise ship and we have several photographs of some of the boats and barges seen along the way as well as several faluka.

These photos were taken at Luxor's Railway Station early evening in February 2006.
We were actually invited up into the signal box and had a look round there too.

The first two of the above photos are of loaded sugar cane wagons and later on our walk we were lucky enough to see the engine too. The small engine on the right was busy shunting wagons - seen along the Nile on our Dendarah trip

The Caleches roam Luxor's streets braving the impatient taxis and coaches whilst touting for customers.
The majority of them are beautifully painted and decorated - around 11PM many of them head home - we counted 40 of them racing along towards Karnak one evening.

Arabaya are Luxor's local buses and can be seen racing around both sides of the River - they are actually pick-up trucks with a fairly low metal or wooden cabin. Some of them have really nice decorative paintwork on the outside -inside the seats are simply wooden benches. Arabaya's are the main way of getting around for local people - the fares are just a few Egyptian Pounds - for instance you can get from the Worker's Ferry on the West Bank to the Valley of the Queens Ticket Office for 5LE.

Above are just a few more photos of things we saw whilst wandering
around Luxor's West Bank canals and countryside.

This final part are photos of some of the large variety of boats which we saw in the Luxor area of the River Nile -
from small falukas to various barges to the towering cruise-hotel boats.

These photos are of some of the large Hotel or Cruise boats which populate the River Nile. One morning in Luxor we counted 8 of them moored alongside each other - lucky the river Nile is so wide.

The first two above are photos of what the locals were calling falukas
and the other two are two of the Worker's Ferry boats which criss-cross The Nile at Luxor.

These small boats are used as ferries - you can hire one for around 10 to 20LE to cross the river instead of using the normal ferry. They will also take you for longer trips down the Nile - for example a several hours trip to Crocodile Island etc.

There all shapes and sizes of barges and boats moving around on The River Nile carrying anything from sugar cane to tractors to general rubbish.

Aswan. These were taken in and around Aswan, Southern Egypt during late 2009. It's a very laid back Egyptian City and even more load back if you do what many people do a lot of the time, drift around on The River Nile on an old felucca.. There are several small islands on the Nile around Aswan and therefore quite a few little local ferries can be seen scuttling too and fro. Aswan is also the end of the line for hotel cruise boats which sail down from Luxor - what with the Aswan High Dam being just a bit too high to wriggle over for any with onward ambitions of heading on South towards Abu Simbel.

Egypt - Cairo. Quite a few of these photos below were taken around Downtown Cairo - these days large boats cannot get this far up the River Nile. Still there is a lot going on on the river to make things interesting.
In the northern part of the City there is a nice old bridge which sits atop the original Nile Barrage where the Nile splits into its two channels Damietta and Rosetta (there are also four small canals there). The bridge this still has it's tracked lifting gear running right along the sides of the bridge - please see the photograph on the right.

Cairo does have quite a few tuk-tuks whizzing around - you do not find them in the Downtown area at all but there are lots in the northern part of the city and they can also be seen around the Coptic Cairo area.

Other bits and peices. These are just a few other "transport related" photos of things we saw whilst out and about in Egypt. The small signal box was next to a level crossing where we had to wait for a train to pass - the chaos was incredible once the train had passed with every vehicle scrambling for that 6 inch of space as everything started moving. The large water pump engine was on display at one of the lovely monasteries at Wadi Natrun.

Please visit our Home Page for lots more photos and topics about the area around Luxor or if you fancy some more Egyptian Travel and great sunshine and beaches you may be interested in our Sharm El Sheikh Holiday and Travel Guide. There are also topics from both Cairo and Aswan.

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