### L1532 what ancient ports looked like > Piles of sweet-smelling cedar logs lie on the stone quays of the small harbor. Flat- bottomed cargo ships from the Nile lie alongside, their decks almost level with the tops of the stones. Sweating crew members and timber laborers roll trunk after trunk to quayside, then lever them carefully down ramps into the hold with fiber-and-hide ropes. The skipper directs the loading from above, carefully placing each log so that the weight is evenly distributed. A high-ranking Egyptian official in a clean white kilt watches the loading from a distance as his scribe carefully records the length of each log. The skipper calls out. His ship is fully loaded. His crew dismantle the ramps and stow them, then pole the laden vessel out of the harbor; a few oarsmen create steerageway as the skipper anchors close offshore to wait for others in the convoy. Meanwhile, another empty vessel comes alongside the quay and loading resumes. NOTE: Useful description of an ancient port. - [[Beyond the Blue Horizon by Brian Fagan#L1532 what ancient ports looked like|View in Vault]]