The Suez Canal

After leaving Jordan, we sailed back down the Gulf of Aqaba to return to the Red Sea and headed north into the Gulf of Suez to enter the Suez Canal.  During the night the ship reached the southern entry to the canal where we dropped anchor to wait for our turn to enter.  The canal is operated by the Egyptians since it traverses their country with the mainland on the west side and the Sinai peninsula on the east side.  Egyptian officials inspect each ship before they permit it to enter.  We were cleared to enter the canal very early in the morning on Monday, April 21st.  We were up on the front deck before 6:00 a.m. to watch the process.  We entered the canal at Port Suez behind a cargo ship and had a line of ships coming in behind us.  It was cool to watch. 

Unlike the Panama Canal, there are no locks on the Suez Canal because the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea are at the same level.  Essentially, the Suez Canal is a long ditch connecting 2 seas.  It goes for 101 miles through Egypt and has been in operation since 1869.  It took us the whole day to pass through the canal.  Brian spent almost the entire day out on the front deck.  He recalled his father speaking of going through the Suez Canal during World War II.  All along the way, armed Egyptian guards have posts and are standing guard over the canal.  The guards waved to us as we passed by, but they each held a rifle in their other hand.  There are a few cities along the canal, including the port cities at the south and north ends.  The canal is fairly narrow so in most places it is too narrow for 2 ships to pass, thus there are by-pass canals along the route so ships to wait while other ships pass.  The landscape on the Sinai Peninsula side of the canal is fairly barren most of the way -- lots of sand!

We exited the canal into the Mediterranean Sea at about 5:30 p.m.  The canal functions like clockwork with an average of 50 vessels per day passing through.  It's one of the world's most significant waterways with a whopping 8%  of the world's shipping traffic passing through.  We don't know how much Seabourn paid in fees for our passage, but we were told by a lecturer that a cruise ship that he was on a couple of years ago paid a fee of $89,000.00 for passage.  The canal is a vital link for commercial and passenger transport - no wonder the Egyptians guard it so carefully.

All the passengers thoroughly enjoyed the experience of transiting the Suez Canal.  We will never forget this day.  Good bye Red Sea, hello Mediterranean Sea!

Lining up to enter the Canal

Entering the Canal at 7:00 a.m.

Ships following us into the Canal

  

City of Suez, Egypt

Egyptian guards on duty

 

Lots of weapons

Pontoons for building

temporary bridges, if needed

Remembering Dad in the Canal

(1943 in the Royal Navy)

Sinai Peninsula

Egyptian World War I Memorial

 

Egyptian memorial to 1967 War with Israel

 

Our Egyptian Drive-by

Railway swing bridge used when needed

Cargo ship stuck in the desert?

--Not!  It's in a bypass canal waiting its turn

Bridge to nowhere

 

Almost there

 Welcome to the Mediterranean Sea

 

Our transit through the Suez Canal was our only experience with Egypt.  Due to the unrest in that country, Seabourn wisely dropped it from our itinerary.  Hopefully, someday in the future we will get a chance to visit Egypt and see the pyramids.  In the meantime, we enjoyed our drive-by.