The Suez Canal at Port Said and Ismailia

A Hundred And Ninety Three Kilometres Of Canal, Opened In 1869 And Doubled In Part In 2015, Carrying Something Near A Tenth Of World Trade: At Port Said The Ships Come Past The Corniche Close Enough To Read, Under The Green Domes Of The Suez Canal House, And At Ismailia The Canal Authority Built Itself A Garden City · Port Said, Port Said

The Suez Canal is a hundred and ninety-three kilometres of sea-level ditch between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, opened in 1869, doubled along part of its length in 2015, and carrying something near a tenth of world trade - which makes it one of the few places where you can stand on a pavement and watch the global economy go past at eight knots. Port Said is where it meets the Mediterranean, and the ship-watching from the corniche is the attraction: container stacks sliding by above the rooflines, close enough to read the names, with the green domes of the Suez Canal House behind you and a free ferry shuttling across to Port Fouad. Eighty-five kilometres south, Ismailia is the opposite kind of town - the Canal Company built itself a garden city of verandahs and jacarandas on Lake Timsah, and de Lesseps' house is still there. Neither town is pretty in the usual sense. Both are completely unvisited by foreigners, and the canal is extraordinary.

Where the canal meets the Mediterranean at Port Said, with the Canal Authority quarter at Ismailia 85 km south, Port Said, Port Said, Egypt

There is no canal visitor centre and no tour: the corniche is open ground at all hours and the ships come when they come. Convoy timings change daily and are not published for visitors, so ask at a corniche cafe, where everyone knows - mornings usually bring the northbound traffic. The free Port Fouad ferry runs continuously through the day. The Suez Canal House is an administrative building and is admired from outside. Port Said's military and national museums keep daytime hours and both have been closed for periods, so confirm. In Ismailia the museum and de Lesseps' house keep daytime hours with tickets and the garden quarter is walked freely. PHOTOGRAPHING MILITARY AND PORT INSTALLATIONS IS RESTRICTED. Trains from Cairo take about three hours.

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