The Esna Barrage

The old Esna Barrage, established in 1908 represents the link between the East and the West banks, which do not meet except above.

The Barrage, located 162 kilometers north of Aswan old Dam tells its stories for the arrivals and transient's people. Hundreds of stories narrated every day by the eastern bank to the western. In certain hours,The Barrage lock with the height of 80 meters open - to cross him cruise ships destined for the city Aswan while tourists standing on the roof to watch the world of upper Egypt , the same as Monsieur Durga European delegate for newspapers did in the early nineteenth century when he saw this southern world for the first time since the opening of the lock.

The historical sources says that the construction of this lock was after the flood of 1906, according to the old foundation text that was erased from the barrage , in the eighteenth year of the reign of Khedive Abbas Helmi II, and it was an English idea by Sir William Jarstn, but the construction was done the sweat and blood of the Egyptian workers and financed by Egyptian capital about one million pounds in its time, to look the same as we see it in the present time a Link channel or a safe for the history.

When the English company "Ransom and Aria ", which established the barrage brought the crane for the first time in the history of Egypt, the Upper Egyptians called it then "Elf," while Trolley vehicles that came to pass on the barrages with the cars called them the Handicapped wagons.

The weird thing that the people wanted to celebrate the Khedive arrival with horse's and sticks competitions that they knew them well but he -the Khedive - rejected this reception, and he appointed two of the nobles of the town to receive him, and those were Huzain's and Bakri's families who still to be known as nobles .

He did not stop at this point, but the Khedive and the accompanying delegation refused to eat the food that they have prepared for them as he was afraid because of a previous prophecy warned him of Upper Egyptians who tried to assassinate him in Istanbul, Turkey, by one of his guards born in Minya Governorate.

The barrage as described monsieur Durga rise six and a half meters above the water level, and a length of 900 meters and includes 120 arch each extends to five meters, while in the western side there is a navigation lock for the ships to cross with the length of 80 meters and width of 16 meters and over the barrage there is way paved and with the width of 6 meters.

The north wall of the barrage had more than 12 banner distributed between English, Italian, French and Greek banners, and Egypt's share was only four banners includes a single flag for the Ottoman Empire, and these flags no longer exist now, such as some inscriptions Khedivial.

In the north-eastern side of the lock, His Excellency Hussein "Beyk" Fakhri Pasha headmaster of Public Works on January 24, put  the first in  stone of the barrage in 1908.

 but why did they built the barrage ? And What interest earned the provinces of the south?

Academic researchers in the opening records of the Aqueduct just used the speech of Ismail Pasha Sery at the opening ceremony, when he pointed out that the land of Qena were infected drought which is what happened in 1877, when water levels dropped, and thus deprived more than 25,000 acres without irrigation, but with Esna Barrage it will protect the province of drought, lack and will add a new 350 thousand acres that will be arable according to Khedive sermon.

The opening was in 1909, says Reporters of those newspapers, including " El Moktatf "magazine reporter , they were traveling on board of Anglo-American ships while he was on board of his boat named Bahia next to the accompanying property yacht called "Sea breeze"and the number of ships that docked there to attend the opening was more than 20 steamship However, the people of Esna were absent from the ceremony, although it was in their country. The more weird that William Jarstein who proposed the barrage did not attend the opening, his argument was his ailing mood.