De Lessups’ Big Ditch: Suez Canal + Sinai

Suez Canal, Egypt, April 20 — I had originally planned to call this ‘Onward to Suez,’ but the Canal is already way behind me.

I promised you some more information on Sinai, which is separated from the main part of Egypt by the Isthmus of Suez, through which the canal was built. You’ll recall I learned that the Sinai Peninsula is in Asia.

Israel invaded and took over the Sinai in the Suez Crisis of 1956 and again during the Six Day War in 1967. With the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Egypt regained control of Sinai, and Israel left in 1982. That peace treaty is still strong.

When I was on the Sinai Peninsula visiting Sharm el-Sheikh, our guide explained a bit about the Muslim Brotherhood, which I’d mentioned in my post about the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952 and the subsequent presidents of Egypt, which included one the Muslim Brotherhood backed, Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi was elected president in 2012, after the Arab Spring, and after the resignation of Mubarak, who had been president for 30 years. American-educated, Morsi has a PhD. in engineering from the University of Southern California. As president, he wanted to re-write the Constitution, put in his own judges, and push his Jihadi platform.

After one year in office, the military ousted Morsi and put Abdel el-Sisi in his place. But that one year under Morsi scared Egypt and other countries.

One of our lecturers described today’s Egyptian government as a ‘military regime with a civilian overlay.’

Jihadism — and ISIS — are strongest in the North Sinai. I blurred security personnel photos in my first Egypt blog post because tourists have been known to take photos of the personnel at checkpoints, like the dozens I went through, and post them on Facebook. ISIS sees the photos, identifies the policeman or security guard, and kills him and maybe his family, too. We were assured that this happens. If a guard outside a bus sees someone inside it taking a picture, they can come on the bus, take the camera or phone, and destroy it.

Ferdinand de Lessups’ Big Ditch

One passenger said, before we entered it, ‘It’s just a long ditch.’ Well, that just about sums up any canal, doesn’t it? Erie, Panama and Suez. Just because it doesn't have locks makes it no less a canal. This is the pretty part of it, at the beginning.

Since it’s a one-way street, it does have two wide spots — Ballah Bypass and Great Bitter Lake — that allow northbound and southbound ships to pass one another.

The original canal opened in 1869 after 10 years of construction. A new section of the canal was opened in 2015: 48 dredgers spent one year digging the new part, and they piled all the sand along the sides. One guide said that Egypt needs to develop more business along the canal. As you can see from my photos, there ain’t much there.

Working along the canal must be hot, sandy and boring. The guys in blue (tiny specks in the shade at the left of the long building), taking a break in the shade, whistled and whistled and waved and waved at us. We whistled and waved back. You know I can whistle.

Don’t know if the whistlers knew of cared that the Viking Sun was full of Americans, or they’re just friendly to all visitors. Or just bored. Mona, our guide a couple days ago at Karnak, told us that Egyptians like Americans. ‘They know how to separate people from politics.’ She bid us adieu with ‘God bless America. God bless Egypt. God bless all of you.’

A view from the port side. There was definitely more going on on the west bank.

One of many watchtowers all up and down the canal, and this section is walled. These are manned — I saw a guy climbing up the ladder. We also saw people hiking along the path. Hiking.