Connections - The Square Sail

Travel south to north in Egypt was always easy because that is the direction in which the Nile River flows. But north to south travel was slow and cumbersome until a clever boatman had a brainstorm around 3350 B.C.E. He attached a large square of fabric (probably linen) to a yard (a horizontal pole) that was attached to a mast near the front of his Nile boat. This sail caught the prevailing north-to-south winds and propelled his boat upriver.

Square sails are very inefficient if conditions require much steering and tacking (sailing on a zigzag into the wind). But since the Nile is relatively straight, calm, and easy to navigate, Egyptian sailors saw no need to improve much upon this invention. The little steering that was required needed only a steering pole or the use of slender steering oars. The square sail served them well for thousands of years.


When Egyptian sailors ventured into the Mediterranean Sea, or into the Red Sea down the coast of Africa to Punt (on the eastern coast of Africa, in the area of modern Somalia) even their seagoing ships were still fitted with simple square sails.

Later sailors, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians, faced with the more complex demands of sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, made numerous improvements to the square sail. They also developed more efficient sails in a variety of designs to more effectively catch the winds and propel large, heavy ships through deep water. But the basic shape of all square sails originally came from those ancient Nile reed boats.

Today, sailboats are still commonly used to carry goods and passengers along the Nile.