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Port Said is a port city of about 790,000 people in north-east Egypt, stretching some 30 kilometres along the Mediterranean on the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. Across the water lies its twin, Port Fuad, on the Asian side, linked to it by free ferries.
The city was founded in 1859 as the base for digging the Suez Canal and named after Said Pasha, the ruler who granted the concession. It grew into a cosmopolitan port of many nationalities, known for its old houses with grand balconies. British forces entered Egypt through it in 1882, and it was the scene of fierce resistance during the Suez Crisis of 1956.
Visitors come to see the domed Suez Canal Authority Building and the 1869 lighthouse, ride the ferry between Africa and Asia, visit its mosques, churches and museums, shop in the duty-free port and spend summer days on the beach.
The Suez Canal Authority Building stands right on the bank of the canal, built in 1895 under Khedive Abbas Hilmi II to oversee passing ships. Its palace design in an Islamic style is crowned by three green domes, and President Nasser raised the Egyptian flag here after British troops left in 1956.
Port Said Lighthouse was finished in 1869, a week before the Suez Canal opened, to plans by the French engineer François Coignet. Its octagonal tower is 56 metres high and was one of the first large structures of reinforced concrete, and silt has since left it standing inland on Palestine Street.
The Port Fuad Ferry carries people and cars free of charge across the Suez Canal between Port Said and Port Fuad, running all through the day. Port Fuad was founded in 1926 on the Asian bank, so the short ride links the African and Asian halves of one metropolitan area of over a million.
The Suez Canal at Port Said meets the Mediterranean, and the city grew from 25 April 1859, when Ferdinand de Lesseps struck the first blow of the pickaxe here. The canal opened in November 1869, and today ships gather offshore to wait their turn before sailing south past the city's waterfront.
Al-Tawfiqi Mosque is the oldest mosque in Port Said, built in 1882 in the reign of Khedive Tawfiq in the Arab district. It replaced a modest wooden mosque that the Suez Canal Company had put up in 1860 for the Egyptian workers digging the canal, which had become too small and run down.
Al-Shate'e Mosque takes its name from the beach beside it, first opened by the Egyptian armed forces in 1978 and later rebuilt and enlarged in the style of Al-Aqsa Mosque. It reopened on 26 December 2003, and ships approaching the Suez Canal can see it from the sea in the Al-Manakh district.
The Church of Saint Eugénie is the oldest church in Port Said, first built of wood in 1867 on land given by the Suez Canal Company. The present church of 1890 joins Classical and Neo-Renaissance styles, with marble floors and floral and geometric wall ornaments, and it is a listed monument.
The French Cathedral of Port Said, dedicated to Mary Queen of the World, had its first stone laid on 11 February 1934 and was blessed on 13 January 1937. Designed by Jean Hulot in a Romano-Byzantine style, it stands on 23 July Street and was the seat of the apostolic vicariate until 1987.
The Port Said Military Museum opened on 23 December 1964 on 23 July Street to honour the city's resistance to the Anglo-French and Israeli attack of 1956. A hall on the October War was added in 1978, and its garden displays captured weapons and cannons from the age of Muhammad Ali.
The Museum of Modern Art in Port Said opened in 1995 on Shohada Square, beneath the city's Obelisk of the Martyrs. It shows modern and contemporary work by Egyptian artists, including paintings, prints, drawings and ceramics, in a city long known as a meeting place of many cultures.
Port Said Beach lines the Mediterranean shore west of the canal mouth and makes the city a popular summer resort, with both public and private stretches of sand. From the shore, beside the Al-Shate'e Mosque, visitors can watch the ships waiting at anchor before entering the canal.
Simsimiyya is the box lyre whose bright notes accompany the singers known as suhbagiyya in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. It is thought to have come to the coast in the 19th century with workers on the Suez Canal, and in 2024 it was recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage.
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Log in to add photosPhoto: لا روسا, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
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