SUEZ
TRANSIT
I am not sure what I expected our passage through
the great Suez would be like but I found it interesting and exciting.
We arrived at Port Said about 9PM. The Captain
announced our departure through the canal was scheduled for 5AM. Of course, Ken and Diane were up at the
scheduled hour to capture photos of our entry into the canal. By 6 AM the ship
was alive with the sight and sounds of our population of nearly 4,000.
By way of background, the Canal is an artificial
sea-level waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red
Sea. It was opened in 1889 to provide ships travel between Europe and South
Asia without navigating around Africa thus, reducing the sea voyage between
Europe and India by 4,300 miles. The canal is approximately 100 +/- miles long
and passage is single lane. The canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal
Authority of Egypt. In August 2014,
construction was to construct a second canal, the “New Suez Canal” for half of
the route of the canal, costing $8.4 billion which is anticipated to increase
the canal’s capacity from 49 to 97 ships a day. Construction is expected to
take a year?
As we passed by fields of lush green fields under
cultivation I was puzzled by the barren desert sand on the left as compared to
the green productive fields on the right. I was told that Egypt had invested
heavily into providing fresh water to enhance development of the area, and it
appeared to be working.
The barren side of the canal is part of the Sinai
Peninsula which has been the source of numerous disputes through the years and
now belongs to Egypt. There is no evidence of development or attempt to develop
that barren land on the canal.
There are two bridges connecting the two sides of
the canal, the El Ferdan Railway Bridge, the longest swing bridge in the world,
runs from the east of the Suez Canal to the west into Sinai. It is open to
allow sailing ships to pass and closed during passage of trains. I thought that I heard that it is rarely used
now but that may have been a lapse in my hearing. The second bridge, The Suez Canal Bridge, is a road bridge crossing the Suez at El Qantara
(“The Bridge” in Arabic) that links the continents of Africa and Eurasia. This
bridge was jointly financed by Egypt and Japan.
As we navigated the canal we saw men fishing from small boats, frequent security checkpoints that seemed to be every ½ mile to one mile and military bases located at close intervals to give assurance of safety and security. Towns and cities along the way suggested a comfortable lifestyle causing the casual observer to wonder why all of the disputes and unease.
