Egypt Guide
The Canal Zone
Suez
Unlike Port Said and Ismailiya, SUEZ (Es-Suweis in Arabic) has a history long predating the Canal, going back to Ptolemaic Klysma. As Arabic Qulzum, the port prospered from the spice trade and pilgrimages to Mecca throughout medieval times, remaining a walled city until the eighteenth century, when Eliza Fay described it as "the Paradise of Thieves". The Canal brought modernization and assured revenues, later augmented by the discovery of oil in the Gulf of Suez. All this was lost during the wars with Israel. Almost the entire population was evacuated between 1967 and 1973, and the city was devastated by Israeli bombardments, subsequently requiring a massive reconstruction programme financed by the Gulf states. Today most of the city's 490,000 inhabitants have been rehoused in prefabricated estates or the patched-up remnants of older quarters, while noxious petrochemical refineries, cement and fertilizer plants ring the outskirts.
Downtown Suez is readily accessible by microbus (50pt) or taxi (£E7–10) from the bus terminal. The main street, Sharia el-Geish, is a two-kilometre-long swath where cruising minibuses drop and collect passengers along the way to Port Tewfiq. Dusty palms and decrepit colonial-era buildings (including several churches) are followed by a strip of hotels, restaurants and currency exchanges. The Convent of theGood Chapel Sisters is an imposing colonial-style building given to the international sisterhood in 1872 by the Suez Canal Company after one of its directors recovered from a mystery illness while in their care. A decline in their numbers led the nuns to give their chapel over to the Coptic Church, but they still run a primary school and a dispensary for the poor.
The backstreets to the south of El-Geish harbour cheap cafés, while Sharia Sa'ad Zaghloul runs past consulates and a fun park towards the governorate. North of El-Geish, a tawdry souk overflows along Sharia Haleem, presaging a quarter of workshops and chandlers, crumbling century-old apartments with wooden balconies interspersed with modern government-built low-rises. There's a better bazaar to the northwest in Arba'in.