Suez

Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions were texts written in Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian and Egyptian on five monuments erected in Wadi Tumilat, commemorating the opening of a canal between the Nile and the Bitter Lakes, to facilitate a shipping connection between Egypt, then a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, and Persia (i.e. the greater portion of the Empire itself).

Partial transliteration and translation of the inscription:

Transliteration of the Old Persian text: xâmanišiya \ thâtiy \ Dârayavauš \ XŠ \ adam \ Pârsa \ amiy \ hacâ \ Pâ rsâ \ Mudrâyam \ agarbâyam \ adam \ niyaštâyam \ imâm \ yauviyâ m \ katanaiy \ hacâ \ Pirâva \ nâma \ rauta \ tya \ Mudrâyaiy \ danuvatiy \ ab iy \ draya \ tya \ hacâ \ Pârsâ \ aitiy \ pasâva \ iyam \ yauviyâ \ akaniya \ avathâ \ yathâ \ adam \ niyaštâyam \ utâ \ nâva \ âyatâ \ hacâ \ Mudrâ yâ \ tara \ imâm \ yauviyâm \ abiy \ Pârsam \ avathâ \ yathâ \ mâm \ kâma\ âha

English translation: "King Darius says: I am a Persian; setting out from Persia I conquered Egypt. I ordered to dig this canal from the river that is called Nile and flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended."

In the 7th century AD a town named "Kolzum" stood just north of the site of present-day Suez and served as eastern terminus of a canal built by Amr ibn al-'As, linking the Nile River and the Red Sea. Kolzum's trade fell following the closure of the canal in 770 by the second Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, to prevent his enemies in Arabia from accessing supplies from Egypt and the lands north of it. Nonetheless, the town benefited from the trade that remained between Egypt and Arabia.[6] By 780 al-Mansur's successor al-Mahdi restored part of the canal.[7] The Qarmatians led by al-Hasan al-A'sam defeated a Fatimid army headed by Jawhar al-Siqilli at Kolzum in 971 and thereby captured the town. Following his defeat in Cairo by al-Siqilli at the end of that year, Hasan and his forces retreated to Arabia via Kolzum.[8] Suez was situated nearby and served as a source of drinking water for Kolzum, according to the Arab traveler al-Muqaddasi, who visited in 986.[9]

The Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, Saladin, fortified both Kolzum and Suez in order to defend Egypt's eastern frontier from Crusader raids by Raynald of Chatillon.[10] Between 1183 and 1184, Raynald had ships stationed in the Red Sea to prevent the Ayyubid garrison at Kolzum from accessing water. In response, Saladin's brother al-Adil had Husam ad-Din Lu'lu' build a naval fleet, which sailed to the southern port of Aidab to end Raynald's venture.[8] By the 13th century, it was recorded that Kolzum was in ruins, as was Suez, which had gradually replaced the former as a population center.[6] According to Muslim historians al-Maqrizi and al-Idrisi, Kolzum had once been a prosperous town, until it was occupied and plundered by Bedouins. Arab geographer al-Dimashqi noted that Kolzum belonged to the Mamluk province of al-Karak at the time.[8]

c.1800 French map of the "Isthmus of Suez"; the port area shown on the map is c.10km south of the modern city of Suez and is uninhabited today.

To prevent Portuguese attacks against Egyptian coastal towns and the Red Sea port of Jeddah, Qansuh al-Ghawri, the last Mamluk sultan, ordered a 6,000-man force headed by Selman Reis to defend Suez in 1507, which in turn limited the Mamluk military's capabilities against the Ottomans in the Mediterranean Sea.[11] Following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt at the beginning of the 16th century, Suez became both a major naval and trading station. The Ottoman fleets at Suez were instrumental in disputing control over Indian Ocean trade with the Portuguese.[6] in the Red Sea in the 16th & 17th century. Campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. Yellow - Factories ( Mokha) Red - Allied Territorie or under influence. Dark Green - Campaigns of Adal.[12]

In trying to limit the Ottoman fleet to the Red Sea, after the Battle of Diu in 1538, a Portuguese Armada was sent in 1541 to seek out and destroy the Ottoman fleet.

After the conquest of El Tor on the Egyptian coast, the commander Estevão da Gama gave the order to attack Suez, but failed to burn the Ottoman fleet as the Ottomans had received intelligence about the incoming raid beforehand. Instead, the Portuguese fleet spent the next 7 months in the Red Sea sailing from port to port and waiting in Massawa for the monsoon to India.

German explorer Carsten Niebuhr noted that in the 18th century a 20-vessel fleet sailed annually from Suez to Jeddah—which served both as Mecca's port and Egypt's gateway for trade with India. However, by 1798, during the Napoleonic invasion, Suez had once again devolved into an unimportant town. Fighting between the French and the British in 1800 left most of the town in ruins.[6] Its importance as a port increased after the Suez Canal opened in 1869[13]

The city was virtually destroyed during battles in the late 1960s and early 1970s between Egyptian and Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula. The town was deserted following the Six-Day War in 1967. Avraham Adan tried to capture the city but it failed, it cost the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) 80 troops killed, 120 wounded and 40 tanks destroyed. Reconstruction of Suez began soon after Egypt reopened the Suez Canal, following the Yom Kippur War with Israel. The city is home to the alleged massacre of over 20 Israeli prisoners of war after the battle of the city

Suez was the first city to hold major protests against the government of Hosni Mubarak during the 2011 Egyptian revolution and was the scene of the first fatality of that uprising.[14] On account of this, it has been called the Sidi Bouzid of Egypt, recalling that small town's role in the 2010–2011 Tunisian revolution.[15]

Obstruction at Suez; a container ship got stuck in March 2021

In 2021, the container ship Ever Given became stuck across the Suez canal near Suez. This came to be known as the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction.

Suez, in 1541 in drawing by Dom João de Castro ( Roteiro do Mar Roxo)

The most populous district of the city, it has most of the government buildings and public institutions. It also has the city's main fruit and vegetable markets in addition to other markets and stores selling various commodities.

Suez district is considered the most affluent area in the city. The real estate there is significantly more expensive than any other district in the city. Its buildings have more modern architectural style than those in the El Arbaeen District. It includes the affluent neighbourhood of Port Tawfik, which directly overlooks the Suez Canal. Port Tawfik includes some old-style houses that date back to the era of English occupation. The district also includes two of Egypt's most important oil refineries; El-Nasr Petroleum Company and Suez Petroleum Company. Also, Suez Port, one of Egypt's main ports, lies within the perimeter of Suez District.

This district stretches all the way to the border with Ismailia Governorate and contains the entire Asian territory of the city. It has all the rural areas of the city and can be thought of as the city's "countryside".

It includes the newer neighbourhoods of the city. Most of the areas at Faisal District were established after the 1973 Yom Kippur war, which had destroyed vast areas of the city. Examples of neighborhoods in Faisal District include Al-Sabbah, Al-Amal and Al-Mushi, to name a few.

It is characterised by the existence of many industrial areas. There are plants and factories specialising in fertilisers, cement, steel, cooking oil, flour products, oil rigs, ceramic tiles, sugar, and many other products. There is also the Attaka Power Plant.

The district also includes Ain Sokhna, one of Egypt's most important sea resorts, overlooking the Gulf of Suez. Ain Sokhna has numerous high-class sea resorts and is frequented by many tourists, Egyptians and foreigners, all over the year due to its warm weather. The district is also home to the Ain Sokhna Sea Port, one of Egypt's main sea ports operated by the Dubai-based DP World Company and the Al-Ataka Fishing Port, which is the city's main fish production port.

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as a hot desert (BWh).

The hottest recorded temperature was 49 °C (120 °F) on June 14, 1965 while the coldest recorded temperature was 1 °C (34 °F) on February 23, 2004.[20]