Ismailia and Lake Timsah

The Garden City The Suez Canal Company Built For Itself In The 1860s: A Grid Of Tree Lined Streets And Verandahed Villas Quite Unlike Anywhere Else In Egypt, De Lesseps' Own House Still Standing, A Small Museum Of Canal And Graeco Roman Material, And Freshwater Beaches On A Lake That The Canal Runs Straight Through · Ismailia, Ismailia

Ismailia does not look like anywhere else in Egypt, because it was not built by Egypt. The Suez Canal Company laid it out in the 1860s as a company town halfway along its own canal: a grid of wide tree-lined streets, verandahed villas with shutters and gardens, a European quarter that still reads as one, and de Lesseps' own house standing among them. The canal runs through Lake Timsah on the edge of town, which means you can sit on a freshwater beach and watch a container ship cross the horizon behind the trees - one of the odder sights anywhere. There is a small museum of canal and Graeco-Roman material, a garden city's worth of shade, and an easy provincial calm that the rest of the canal zone does not have. It is a hundred and twenty kilometres from Cairo. Be clear about one thing before you raise a camera: photographing the canal, its shipping and any military or port installation is restricted.

Halfway along the Suez Canal on the shore of Lake Timsah, 120 km east of Cairo, Ismailia, Ismailia, Egypt

The garden city is streets rather than a site and is walked at any hour; the Ismailia Museum keeps daylight hours with a small ticket, and whether it is open has varied. DE LESSEPS' HOUSE HAS USUALLY BEEN CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC and is normally seen from outside only, so do not plan around entering it. Lake Timsah's beaches are open in daylight with small charges at the managed stretches and are busiest on Fridays and in summer. PHOTOGRAPHING THE CANAL, ITS SHIPPING AND ANY MILITARY OR PORT INSTALLATION IS RESTRICTED - this is a canal-zone city and the rule is enforced, so photograph the streets and the lake rather than the waterway. Ismailia is on the Cairo rail line, about two hours, and buses run to Cairo, Port Said and Suez; the garden city is walkable and flat.

Ismailia and Lake Timsah on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos