Traversing the Big Ditch--the Suez Canal

The 120 mile long Suez Canal was built between 1859-1869 under the leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps.  It connects the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.  It cuts off the 4,300 miles it would take to go around Africa.  The canal can accommodate 76 ships in a 24 hour period, at an average cost of $250,000.  It took us just under 10 hours to make the passage.

Each morning, one convoy of northbound ships lines up near the city of Suez to start the crossing at 4:00 am.  Meanwhile, two southbound conveys start at 3:30 am from Port Said.

One of the first recognized landmarks going northward on the canal is the Sarapeum or Serapeion Mosque.

In case of emergency or in a time of war, as during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, these bridge sections can be put together to allow vehicular traffic to cross the canal.   

This overhead power crossing was built in 1998.

Here the bridge sections have been assembled and are ready to swing into place at... 

this emergency crossing place.

Originally, the convoys crossed in the Great Bitter lake.

As of 2015, the Ballah Bypass, part of the New Suez, creates a kind of divided highway where now the north and southbound convoys can pass one another.

The great piles of sand line most of the canal.  They have been dredged from the bottom of the canal. Since the canal has no locks like the Panama, it can accommodate ships larger than the Panamax size.  

This is one of the ferry crossings.

There are some channels that allow ships to cross from the northbound to southbound lanes of the bypass.

On either side of one of those crossings, we saw these two statues erected upon completion of the Ballah Bypass in 2015.  On the left is their "Statue of Liberty" and the right one honors the Egyptian laborers who built the original canal more than 150 years ago.

The view looking back on the northern end of the Ballah Bypass.

The Egyptian-Japanese Peace Bridge, or Al Salam Peace Bridge is the only bridge crossing the canal.  It connects Africa and Asia, but was empty of vehicles when we crossed under it.

We sailed out of the east fork at Port Said.

We're in the Mediterranean!