Suez Travel Guide

About The City Of Suez

Suez is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 as of August 2018) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sukhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities. Together they form a metropolitan area. Railway lines and highways connect the city with Cairo, Port Said, and Ismailia.

The heavy thumping delivered during the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel wiped out most of its colonial relics and so it has none of the nostalgic appeals of Port Said and Ismailia. Instead, a sprawl of grim and gritty concrete blocks overwhelms much of the city, with the additional piles of festering rubbish sprouting along most of the streets simply enhancing the down-and-out air.

There are a few old remnants hanging on along a couple of streets in Port Tawfiq which managed to escape the bombing, but nothing of note to deserve a stopover. If you do get stuck here, note that over-zealous security measures have made canal-viewing here a no-go with plenty of barbed wire and bored guards to stop any wannabe sightseers from snapping photos. It is divided between Suez proper and Port Tawfiq – the latter at the mouth of the canal. Joining Port Tawfiq with Suez is Sharia al-Geish, a wide thoroughfare that cuts through an industrial area before leading through the heart of Suez. The city has a petrochemical plant, and its oil refineries have pipelines carrying the finished product to Cairo, in the flag of the governorate: the blue background refer to the sea, the gear refers to the fact that Suez an industrial governorate, and the flame refer to the petroleum firms in it.