Suez Canal

The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس‎ Qanāt al-Suways) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez, and separates the African continent from Asia. After 10 years of construction, it was officially opened on November 17, 1869. The canal allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa, thereby reducing the sea voyage distance by about 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi). It extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km (120.11 mi), including its northern and southern access channels. In 2012, 17,225 vessels traversed the canal (47 per day).

The canal is a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake. It contains no locks system, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez.

Suez Canal (disambiguation)

The Suez Canal is commercial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

See also

Suez

Suez (Arabic: السويس‎ as-Suways ; Egyptian Arabic: es-Sewēs, el-Sewēs pronounced [esseˈweːs]) is a seaport city (population ca. 497,000) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sukhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities. Together they form a metropolitan area. Railway lines and highways connect the city with Cairo, Port Said, and Ismailia. Suez has a petrochemical plant, and its oil refineries have pipelines carrying the finished product to Cairo.

History

Early Islamic era

In the 7th century AD a town named "Kolzum" stood just north of the site of present-day Suez and served as eastern terminus of a canal built by Amr ibn al-'As linking the Nile River and the Red Sea. Kolzum's trade fell following the closure of the canal in 770 by the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur to prevent his enemies in Arabia from accessing supplies from Egypt and the lands north of it. Nonetheless, the town benefited from the trade that remained between Egypt and Arabia. By 780 al-Mansur's successor al-Mahdi restored part of the canal. The Qarmatians led by Hasan ibn Ahmad defeated a Fatimid army headed by Gawhar al-Siqilli at Kolzum in 971 and thereby captured the town. Following his defeat in Cairo by al-Siqilli at the end of that year, Hasan and his forces retreated to Arabia via Kolzum. Suez was situated nearby and served as a source of drinking water for Kolzum according to Arab traveler al-Muqaddasi who visited in 986.

Suez (film)

Suez is an American film released on October 28, 1938 by 20th Century Fox, with Darryl F. Zanuck in charge of production, directed by Allan Dwan and starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young and Annabella. It is very loosely based on events surrounding the construction, between 1859 and 1869, of the Suez Canal, planned and supervised by French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. The screenplay is so highly fictionalized that, upon the film's release in France, de Lesseps' descendants sued (unsuccessfully) for libel.

It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Cinematography (Peverell Marley), Original Music Score (uncredited Louis Silvers) and Sound Recording (uncredited Edmund H. Hansen).

Plot

During a tennis match in Paris between Ferdinand de Lesseps (Tyrone Power) and his friend Vicomte Rene de Latour (Joseph Schildkraut), the enthusiastic admiration of Countess Eugenie de Montijo (Loretta Young) for de Lesseps attracts the attention of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Leon Ames). Bonaparte sees to it that both she and de Lesseps are invited to his reception. At the party, a fortuneteller predicts that Eugenie will have a troubled life, but also wear a crown, and that de Lesseps will dig a ditch. Entranced by Eugenie's beauty, Bonaparte arranges for his romantic rival to be assigned to a diplomatic post in Egypt, joining his father, Count Mathieu de Lesseps (Henry Stephenson), the Consul-General. De Lesseps impulsively asks Eugenie to marry him immediately, but she turns him down.

Suez (disambiguation)

Suez is a seaport town in north-eastern Egypt. Suez can also describe the following:

See also