. Just Imagine the Good Neighbor: The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is an artificial waterway in Egypt connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea thru the Isthmus of Suez. It was built between 1859-1869. Because of the importance of this strategic waterway which saves ships over 4000 miles of travel, there has been wars and contention over the canal throughout the years. Currently under the rules of the Convention of Constantinople, a treaty signed in 1888, every vessel of commerce or war may pass through the canal without regard to its flag. There are many other factors that determine whether a vessel can pass through the canal. One of the most important of these is the size, weight and if you can afford the fees.
Our cruise vessel was anchored near Port Said, Egypt, while a number of officials checked and rechecked many records to verify our size and weight for about 4 hours before we were given permission to travel with the convoy through the canal. The Suez Canal Authority of Egypt also determines how many tugboats will accompany each ship and how much each ship is charged. In 2008, 21,415 vessels traveled through the canal at an average cost of $251,000 each.

There are two bridges that span the canal. One is the Suez Canal Bridge and the other is the El Ferdan Railway bridge. The is one tunnel Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel but six more are in the planning stages.

Steve was one of a very few guests to arise at 3:30 in the morning to watch us leave port Said and start our way through the canal. He could see a bunch of other ships parked in the area, waiting for their turn to join the convoy. It was dark but the moon was very bright so her could see the ships.
He came back to bed and we both got up at daylight to observe more of the process.

There are no locks in the canal. In August 2014, The Ballah Bypass was expanded to speed up the transit time and allow convoys to travel from the north and the south in a single day. The expansion was open in August of 2015. Capacity was increased from 49 ships per day to 97 ships per day. A single north bound convoy departs at 4:00 a.m. A single south bound convoy leaves Port Said at 3:30 a.m. They pass when one convoy goes through the Ballah Bypass or Great Bitter Lake. We were not aware of the other convoy at all.

This may have been the area of Great Bitter Lake as it was much wider than the rest of the canal. The current length of the canal is 120.11 miles long. It takes 10-12 hours to go through the canal. The speed must be low 8-9 knots so as not to erode the banks.

There were several areas where fishing boats were used. I believe that was in the lake area also. There were some towns and resort areas. Here you see a city with the typical mosque towers on the main Egyptian side. There was mostly desert with some guard outposts on the Sinai Peninsula side.

If the commercial ship is overweight, they load a portion of the cargo on these smaller barges owned by the canal company and then reload it at the other end. This helps to preserve the canal. I am sure that it generates additional revenue also.

The photo below is the main Egyptian side of the canal.

This is a picture of the Sinai Peninsula side which was more barren desert and much less developed.

Since more guests were on the decks during the daylight of our canal passage, they opened up the crew deck on the bow of the ship for observation. They also offered cookies and "drinks" under the shade canopy. It was challenging to find the access but it was fun to go out there simply because we could.