Suez Canal

The canal is 163 kilometres long, with no locks, joining the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. Convoys of 10 ships at a time travel Northbound and southbound through one lane with a lake for passing in the middle.

The Suez Canal has been operating since the 13^th Century BC, built by Ramses II. It has been abandoned, closed, modified, blown up, and rebuilt many times. In 1956 the Egyptians decided to nationalise and seize the canal provoking a war with Israel.

The bully French and the failing British Empire, recently united by a world war and fearing loss of access to the canal, joined in by also attacking Egypt. The canal re-opened after agreements were signed allowing free passage for all with a nominal maintenance charge by the Egyptians.  “Nominal charge” meant $250,000 per large ship with over 50 ships per day and 22,000 per year.

The Canal also closed for a few years from 1967 to 1973 whilst the Arabs(Egyptians) and Israeli’s sorted out some more differences of opinion.

Egypt collects a tidy sum from the canal to fund its heritage preservation work.  It is a mystery why the Cairo Museum and outdoor historical sites are in such disrepair and exhibits so poorly presented. If this mystery was solved we might also solve the riddle of why NSW trains, hospitals, schools and roads are in such disrepair despite healthy tax collection.

As the ship was restricted to 5 knots, this was an all day experience starting at 4.30am. On the starboard (northern) side is the sands of Saudi Arabia and on the port (southern) side the fertile, Nile irrigated, farmlands of Egypt. Soldiers and tanks patrol the northern side and sleepy fisherman and farmers couldn’t care on the southern side.  At the end of this Canal is Port Said.