"What is a cataract, Alix?" (let's take a look...)

Here's one more from the Alix series, which I was saving in the hopes that the retired (but evidently still willing to chime in) @PugJesus@piefed.social might want to comment upon, yay.

As I understand it, there were ~6-7 famous cataracts up and down the Nile, in Ancient Egypt.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Nubia_today.png

When I was a laddie, I first came to understand that Egyptian cataracts were like small waterfalls, and thought to myself how much fun! it would be to ride them all the way as if in a whitewater raft adventure, in one's reed-woven boat. 😀

Unfortunately for that little boy, I've come to understand that cataracts are essentially stretches of the Nile that are simply too dangerous to navigate by boat, and therefore must be worked around. The most common situation is evidently a mix of too much shallow water and too many dangerous rocks. Plus treacherous rapids in some situations, exacerbating everything else.

The famous Third Cataract:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/ThirdCataract.jpg

(more shots in WP's gallery)

So getting back to that OP pic, boats meeting a cataract would usually have to be unloaded, their cargo moved to land, the boats pulled up on to land by log rollers & ropes, everything transported up or down river for a stretch, and then the reverse procedure to re-enter that mighty river of yore. Or in some cases towing would work via towpaths, a solution used all through history, and only tailing off in the latter stages of the Industrial Revolution as I understand it.

"Towboats Along the Yotsugi-dōri Canal" from Hiroshige's "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" series, a depiction of a towpath in rural Tokyo, mid-19th century.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/100_views_edo_033.jpg/500px-100_views_edo_033.jpg

"Well, that's all I've got to say about that.
--Forrest Gump

I think it's time to wrap up now, but one last thing to note is that evidently a canal was built to help navigate at least one of these cataracts. A famous one would be The Canal of Senusret III.

(C'est vous, Mssr Voldemort?)