page_title: Lock (water navigation)
hierarchical_section_title: Lock (water navigation)
caption_attribution_description: English: Lock and cottage on Aylesbury Arm of Grand Union. A lock and its attendant cottage on the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union Canal near Marsworth
context_page_description: A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself that rises and falls.
  Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Later canals used more and larger locks to allow a more direct route to be taken.
  Since 2016, the largest lock worldwide is the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium.
context_section_description: A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself (usually then called a caisson) that rises and falls.
  Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Later canals used more and larger locks to allow a more direct route to be taken.
  Since 2016, the largest lock worldwide is the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium.
caption: Canal lock and lock-keeper's cottage on the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union Canal at Marsworth in Hertfordshire, England
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