Giant ships and tankers, unhurriedly walking through a lifeless desert - the spectacle is mesmerizing! This is what the Suez Canal, connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, is like for tourists. . It has significantly shortened the way for ships that previously had to go around the whole of Africa to get to the Indian Ocean . And this is only a geographical aspect, in fact the Suez Canal whole parts of the world - Europe and Asia! Look at the great man-made water object aspire to thousands of tourists vacationing in the Mediterranean and Red Seas .
The main difference of the Suez Canal from those similar to it is that there is a flat terrain and there are no locks on the canal, the sea water freely moves along it. The extreme points are the large port cities - Port Said (Mediterranean Sea) and Suez (Red Sea).
Opening of the channel took place in November 1869, the ceremony was grandiose, concerts and salutes did not cease even at night . Still! The construction of the grandiose facility took 11 years, 120,000 workers died, from hard work and epidemics . However, the idea to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red was not new . Already in the 6th century BC, the Egyptian king Necho cherished this dream . @ But the channel was completed only about 500 BC by the king Darius the First, the Persian conqueror of Egypt . The Suez Canal was the subject of bidding, strife and even wars, several times it was destroyed, it was wanted and probably wanted by many today country . But in 1956 a unique sea route was nationalization IAOD and since then belongs to Egypt .
itself landmark, the Suez Canal is famous also for its interesting places. For example, the automobile tunnel of Ahmed Hamdi - he crosses the channel under his bottom, the length of the tunnel is about 2 km! Tourists are also shown a cable-stayed car bridge, a unique power transmission line with masts 221 m high and El Ferdan railway bridge
Figures and Facts
The length of the Suez Canal is 163 km, the width is not the same in different sections - from 120 to 318 m. In depth, it reaches 20 m.
On average, 48 vessels pass through the canal per day, the traffic is one-sided
Suez canal serves about 15% of the total world trade traffic and about 20% of all oil transportation
Duty for transportation of goods through the channel brings huge revenue to Egypt - more than 5 billion dollars a year
| Suez Canal |
| El-Verdan Bridge, Suez Canal |
| Bridge" Mubarak ", the Suez Canal |