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| The Suez Canal |
If you recall, a couple of months ago I wrote about the Panama Canal and our transit of it. It is a miracle of engineering and design with its system of locks and machinery. Today we are traveling thru the Suez Canal and while it is a longer stretch of water (193.3 km) it is much different than its first cousin, Panama. First and foremost it has not one lock. It is a continuous channel from end to end, and the water flow actually changes from winter to summer but it works either way. On the north end of the canal is the city of Suez and Port Said guards the south entrance. In between the two ends lie the Great Bitters Lake and the Little Bitters. Back in 1859 the first symbolic swing of the pick-axe in Port Said signaled the beginning of construction although it took a couple of years to really get it going.
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| Military ships waiting to go through the Canal |
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| Cargo ships waiting, too. |
Both canals accomplished their design and mission of cutting off extreme time and miles of travel. Panama allows ships to avoid going all the way around South American. The Suez allows ships to avoid the long traverse around Africa. Their birth and lifetimes have been quite different though. But let's concentrate on the Suez Canal and see what we can figure out.
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| life along the canal |
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| Military areas seen all along the canal |
There have been several attempts to build a channel from the Mediterranean thru to the Red Sea. The value of this strategic location has been very apparent for a very long time. Two Pharaohs even attempted something similar using the Nile to connect but failed or was abandoned. Napoleon considered a try at it during the hey day of France but incorrect estimates involving the level of the land and how much fall was involved from end to end spelled it's demise. They feared that making the connection would drain one end and flood the other. The British were strongly opposed to the construction of the canal fearing the construction would bankrupt any attempt. But in late 1861, Egyptian workers began hand digging the early stages of the canal using conscripted forced labor working under horrendous conditions. Thousands of people died from disease, working environment or just over-worked physically.
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Is that ship floating through the desert or
is it just going the other way? |
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| scenes along the canal |
Unlike the Panama Canal, there has always been political or cultural unrest in these waters. At times certain ships would not be permitted passage based on their destination or their port of origin. For example, the canal was actually shut down completely from 1967 till 1975 due to the six day war between Egypt and Israel. Ships, barges and even a bridge were scuttled on both ends to block the canal. Unfortunately, 15 ships were trapped inside the canal in the Bitters Lake portion of the channel. Because of the blockade, these ships remained there for 8 years. Thus was born the Yellow Fleet. The group formed their own organization, combining resources and crews. Social events, boat racing and even the Yellow Fleet Olympic Games were held. Eventually several of the sailors were allowed to leave and a rotation of sorts was put in place to reduce the manpower needed to keep the ships viable. By the end of the blockade, only 2 of the ships were sea worthy enough to continue on.
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The AK-47 monument commemorates the Egyptians
that died during the battle between Egypt & Israel. |
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Angel watching over the canal
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Today the Canal is still a closely guarded and strategically important waterway. With peaceful political agreements in place lately, the canal has been open to all ships of any designation and destination. Passage of the canal does not take place at night and everyday the lineup starts with warships getting front and center and usually passenger ships like ours are next. Today, we are the first ship into the canal and our passage is slow and steady thru out the day. Traffic travels in convoys thru the canal. Usually two southbound and one northbound convoys and a strict speed limit of about 10 knot is enforced. Ships keep about 3/4 of a mile between each other and at several places ferries move between the spaces taking auto and truck traffic from east to west, etc. We happened to see the worlds largest container ship traveling south while we headed north. It is capable of carrying 20,000 containers. Since there are sand dunes between the north and south bound traffic, it looked as if the boat was traveling over the sand.
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| Badr Mosque on the port side at the entrance of the canal |
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| We are the first into the canal! See the ships behind us? |
Several monuments are along the way paying homage to several groups from those that built the canal to those who have defended it. Also along the canal is continuous construction of various types. Like any large working structure, improvements and maintenance is constant. All of this takes place under the watchful eyes of military personnel posted very regularly all along the corridor.
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| Monument honoring the workers |
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| Suez Defense Monument |
But as we were the first ship thru today, we encountered no problems and after about 10 hours and four pilot boats later, we find ourselves coming out into the Mediterranean Sea and on our way to Italy. Napoli is the port city we are aiming for as Vialula and I are anxious to see Capri again. See you there.
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