Travel Guide Port-Dit

The city, dedicated to Khedive Mohammed Said, who jointly ordered its construction with the Suez Canal Company, was founded in 1859, ten years before the canal was inaugurated, on an artificial earthen lagoon bounded on the west by lakes. The town was primarily created to accommodate European engineers, as well as the Egyptian workforce working on digging the canal (it should be noted that there are two towns in Port-Saïd, one French, the other Arab), all working on digging the canal.Once the canal was completed and inaugurated, the Company's headquarters were set up in Ismailia. However, the Company, all-powerful over the canal cities, has always played a major role in the town's development: building and providing villas, private beaches, restaurants and entertainment venues, as well as churches, all for the benefit of canal employees.This self-sufficient life came to a head in 1956 with the "canal affair", as it was known in Europe, considered in Egypt as "a triple and cowardly aggression" by France, the United Kingdom and Israel. Since then, the idyll with France has never been the same, for those who remember, as in the case of the monumental statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, unbolted from its pedestal, tipped into the waters of the canal, fished out and finally put away in a shed (like a leitmotif, we hear talk of its reinstallation, which is never, however, appropriate). Susceptibility is still fresh, even though an Alliance française is based here. Economically speaking, in 1902, the town, which became a free zone, split in two; a customs network was set up and developed at its gates. Today, the free zone no longer exists. This is one explanation for the gloomy mood of the town's inhabitants, who no longer see the customers who used to flock here from all over Egypt. Nevertheless, with the subsidies from the canal, the city is one of the richest in Egypt, after Ismailia.Port-Saïd is an interesting destination if you already know Egypt well. Spending a day or two here may be well worth your while. Take the time to stroll along the seafront (which is now being run down by endless shopping malls), in the "faransawi" district or the more popular "el arabi" district; cross the canal on one of the many free ferries and head for Port-Fouad, where you'll find some pretty little villas.