Satellite view of the port and city, the southern terminus of theSuez Canal that transits through Egypt anddebouches into the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said. (Up is north-east).
29°58′N32°33′E / 29.967°N 32.550°E /29.967; 32.550Railway lines and highways connect the city withCairo,Port Said, andIsmailia. Suez has apetrochemical plant, and itsoil refineries have pipelines carrying the finished product to Cairo. These are represented in the flag of the governorate: the blue background refers to the sea, the gear refers to Suez's status as an industrial governorate, and the flame refers to the petroleum firms of Suez. The city has three ports: theSuez Port (Port Tewfik), al-Adabiya,[7] and al-Zaytiya,[8] and extensive port facilities. Together, the three cities form the Suezmetropolitan area, located mostly inAfrica with a small portion inAsia.
English translation:"King Darius says: I am a Persian; setting out from Persia I conquered Egypt. I ordered to dig this canal from the river that is called Nile and flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended."
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 byAmr ibn al-'As, linking theNile River and theRed Sea. Kolzum's trade fell following the closure of the canal in 770 by the secondAbbasid caliph,al-Mansur, to prevent his enemies inArabia from accessing supplies from Egypt and the lands north of it. Nonetheless, the town benefited from the trade that remained between Egypt and Arabia.[11] By 780 al-Mansur's successoral-Mahdi restored part of the canal.[12] TheQarmatians led byal-Hasan al-A'sam defeated aFatimid army headed byJawhar al-Siqilli at Kolzum in 971 and thereby captured the town. Following his defeat inCairo by al-Siqilli at the end of that year, Hasan and his forces retreated to Arabia via Kolzum.[13] Suez was situated nearby and served as a source of drinking water for Kolzum, according to theArab traveleral-Muqaddasi, who visited in 986.[14]
TheAyyubid sultan of Egypt,Saladin, fortified both Kolzum and Suez in order to defend Egypt's eastern frontier fromCrusader raids byRaynald of Chatillon.[15] Between 1183 and 1184, Raynald had ships stationed in theRed Sea to prevent the Ayyubid garrison at Kolzum from accessing water. In response, Saladin's brotheral-Adil hadHusam ad-Din Lu'lu' build a naval fleet, which sailed to the southern port ofAidab to end Raynald's venture.[13] By the 13th century, it was recorded that Kolzum was in ruins, as was Suez, which had gradually replaced the former as a population center.[11] According to Muslim historiansal-Maqrizi andal-Idrisi, Kolzum had once been a prosperous town, until it was occupied and plundered byBedouins. Arab geographeral-Dimashqi noted that Kolzum belonged to theMamluk province ofal-Karak at the time.[13]
c.1800 French map of the "Isthmus of Suez"; the port area shown on the map is c.10km south of the modern city of Suez and is uninhabited today.
To preventPortuguese attacks against Egyptian coastal towns and the Red Sea port ofJeddah,Qansuh al-Ghawri, the lastMamluk sultan, ordered a 6,000-man force headed bySelman Reis to defend Suez in 1507, which in turn limited the Mamluk military's capabilities against theOttomans in theMediterranean Sea.[16] Following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt at the beginning of the 16th century, Suez became both a major naval and trading station. The Ottoman fleets at Suez were instrumental in disputing control overIndian Ocean trade with the Portuguese.[11] in the Red Sea in the 16th & 17th century. Campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. Yellow - Factories ( Mokha) Red - Allied Territorie or under influence. Dark Green - Campaigns of Adal.[17]
In trying to limit theOttoman Navy to the Red Sea, after thesiege of Diu in 1538, a Portuguese fleet was sent in 1541 to seek out and destroy the Ottoman navy. After capturingEl Tor on the Egyptian coast, the fleet's commanderEstevão da Gama gave the order to attack Suez, but failed to engage the Ottoman fleet as the Ottomans had received intelligence about the incoming attack beforehand. Instead, the Portuguese fleet spent the next 7 months in the Red Sea sailing from port to port and waiting inMassawa before eventually leaving for India.[citation needed]
German explorerCarsten Niebuhr noted that in the 18th century a 20-strong fleet sailed annually from Suez toJeddah, which served both asMecca's port and Egypt's gateway for trade with India. However, by theFrench invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798, Suez had once again devolved into an unimportant town. Fighting betweenFrench andOttoman troops in 1800 left most of the town in ruins.[11] Its importance as a port increased after the Suez Canal opened in 1869.[18]
The city was virtually destroyed during battles in the late 1960s and early 1970s between Egyptian and Israeli forces occupying theSinai Peninsula. The town was deserted following theSix-Day War in 1967.Avraham Adan tried tocapture the city but it failed, it cost the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) 80 troops killed, 120 wounded and 40 tanks destroyed. Reconstruction of Suez began soon after Egypt reopened the Suez Canal, following theYom Kippur War with Israel.
Suez, in 1541 in drawing by Dom João de Castro ( Roteiro do Mar Roxo)
The most populous district of the city, it has most of the government buildings and public institutions. It also has the city's main fruit and vegetable markets in addition to other markets and stores selling various commodities.
Suez district is considered the most affluent area in the city. The real estate there is significantly more expensive than any other district in the city. Its buildings have more modern architectural style than those in the El Arbaeen District. It includes the affluent neighbourhood of Port Tawfik, which directly overlooks the Suez Canal. Port Tawfik includes some old-style houses that date back to the era of English occupation. The district also includes two of Egypt's most important oil refineries; El-Nasr Petroleum Company and Suez Petroleum Company. Also,Suez Port, one of Egypt's main ports, lies within the perimeter of Suez District.
This district stretches all the way to the border with Ismailia Governorate and contains the entire Asian territory of the city. It has all the rural areas of the city and can be thought of as the city's "countryside".
It includes the newer neighbourhoods of the city. Most of the areas at Faisal District were established after the 1973Yom Kippur war, which had destroyed vast areas of the city. Examples of neighborhoods in Faisal District include Al-Sabbah, Al-Amal and Al-Mushi, to name a few.
It is characterised by the existence of many industrial areas. There are plants and factories specialising in fertilisers, cement, steel, cooking oil, flour products, oil rigs, ceramic tiles, sugar, and many other products. There is also the Attaka Power Plant.
The district also includes Ain Sokhna, one of Egypt's most important sea resorts, overlooking the Gulf of Suez. Ain Sokhna has numerous high-class sea resorts and is frequented by many tourists, Egyptians and foreigners, all over the year due to its warm weather. The district is also home to the Ain Sokhna Sea Port, one of Egypt's main sea ports operated by the Dubai-based DP World Company and the Al-Ataka Fishing Port, which is the city's main fish production port.
In ancient times, there was a canal from the Nile delta to the Gulf of Suez, when the gulf extended further north than it does today.[21] This canal fell into disuse, and the present canal was built in the nineteenth century.
The Suez Canal offers a significantly shorter passage for ships, as compared to passing round theCape of Good Hope. The construction of the Suez Canal was favoured by the natural conditions of the region: the comparatively short distance between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the occurrence of a line of lakes or depressions which became lakes (Lake Manzala in the north, and depressions,Timsah and the Bitter Lakes, part way along the route), and the generally flat terrain. The construction of the canal was proposed by the engineer and French diplomatFerdinand de Lesseps, who in 1854 acquired fromSaid Pasha the rights of constructing and operating the canal for a period of 99 years. TheCompagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez was formed. Construction took 11 years, and the canal opened on 17 November 1869. The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade.
In July 1956, just a few days after the fourth anniversary of theEgyptian Revolution of 1952, the Egyptian government under PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, which had been run by the French and owned privately, with the British as the largest shareholders. In 1956, Israeli, British and French forces invaded the Suez Canal, which became known as theSuez Crisis. Following Israel's invasion and occupation of theSinai Peninsula in theSix-Day War of 1967, the Canal was closed, and did not reopen until 1975.
Today, the Canal is a vital link in world trade, and contributes significantly to the Egyptian economy; in 2009 the income generated from the canal accounted for 3.7% of Egypt's GDP.[23]
William Matthew Flinders Petrie, A History of Egypt. Volume 3: From the XIXth to the XXXth Dynasties, Adamant Media Corporation,ISBN0-543-99326-4, p. 366Barbara Watterson (1997), The Egyptians, Blackwell Publishing,ISBN0-631-21195-0, p. 186
^Mayerson, Philip (1996). "The Port of Clysma (Suez) in Transition from Roman to Arab Rule".Journal of Near Eastern Studies.55 (2):119–126.doi:10.1086/373802.JSTOR546035.S2CID163029985.
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