Port Said

Port Said was founded in 1859 as the Mediterranean construction base for the Suez Canal and grew into a cosmopolitan port city with its own architecture: three and four-storey buildings with deep wooden verandas and galleries running the full width of the facade, painted in pale colours, designed for shade and sea air. A good number survive along Sharia al-Gomhoreya and the waterfront. The city's permanent attraction is simply the canal: ships pass at the end of the streets, close enough to read their names, and the free ferry across to Port Fuad gives a five-minute crossing among them. A military museum and the national museum cover the city's history, and the old Canal Authority building with its green domes is the landmark on the waterfront.

History

Port Said was founded on Easter Monday, 25 April 1859, when Ferdinand de Lesseps gave the first swing of the pickaxe for the Suez Canal, and it took its name from Sa'id of Egypt. Ships could not anchor close in, so a rocky outcrop a few hundred metres away was fitted with a wooden wharf and joined to the beach by a jetty; this "departure islet" became the heart of the city, and a monument to de Lesseps was later raised on it. Everything had to be imported, from wood, stone and machinery to food and even water, and many early buildings came in kit form; the jetties were founded on blocks of a new conglomerate concrete named after its inventor Francois Coignet, and the same concrete was used for the lighthouse, the only original building still standing. The first 150 labourers camped in tents in 1859, there were 2000 inhabitants a year later and 10,000 by 1869, when the canal opened, with the European district on the waterfront and the Arab district of Gemalia to the west, divided at first by a tongue of Lake Manzala that later dried out and was built over. In 1902 Egyptian cotton began to be exported through the port, in 1904 a standard gauge railway to Cairo opened, and by 1907 the city had about 50,000 inhabitants, among them 11,000 Europeans and a sizable Greek community (Wikipedia, Port Said).

What you'll find

• Wooden-galleried colonial buildings - deep verandas along whole facades.
• Ships at the end of the street - the canal entrance seen from the town.
• The free Port Fuad ferry - a short crossing among the shipping.
• The Canal Authority building - green domes on the waterfront.

When to go

April to November for the weather, though the city works year round. Mornings and evenings for walking; the ferry runs constantly. A day covers the old town, the waterfront and a museum. Ship traffic is heaviest when a convoy moves.

Practical notes

Photography near the canal and port facilities is restricted and cameras attract attention; be careful what you point at. Many of the wooden buildings are decaying and some have been lost. The beach is mediocre. Museums keep irregular hours.

Nearby

Port Fuad is across the water; Ismailia lies south along the canal.

Key facts