The Suez - Canal

The Suez Canal ( In Arabic: Qanat Al-Suways ), is an artificial sea-level waterway walking north to south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt to connect the Mediterranean Sea & the Red Sea. The canal separates the African continent from Asia , & it provides the shortest maritime route between Europe & the lands lying around the Indian & western Pacific oceans. It is of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes.

The Suez Canal is of the most important waterways in the world.
The canal is extensively used by modern ships , as it is the quickest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean . Tolls paid by the vessels represent an important source of income for the Egyptian government.
Railway & a sweet water canal are run on the west bank parallel to the Suez Canal .
The Canal runs between Port Said harbor & the Gulf of Suez , through soils which vary according to the region. At Port Said & the surrounding area, the soil consists over thousands of years of silt & clay sedimentations deposited by the Nile waters drifted by Damietta branch. This formation extends to Kantara, 40 km to the south of Port Said , where silt mixes with sand. The central region of the Canal between Kantara & Kabret consists of fine & coarse sands, while the southern region contains dispersed layers of rocks, varying in texture from soft sand to some calcium rocks, The side gradient of the water cross section differs according to the nature of the soil, which is four:1 in the north & three:1 in the south.

The Suez Canal is a sea level Canal & the height of water level differs slightly & the extrime tidal range is 65 cm in the north & one.9 m in the south. The banks of the Canal are protected against the wash & waves, generated by the transit of ships, by revetments of hard stones & steel sheet piles corresponding to the nature of soil in every area. On both sides of the Canal, there's mooring bollards every 125 m for the mooring of vessel in case of emergency, & kilometric sign posts helping locate the position of ships in the waterway. The navigable channel is bordered by light & reflecting buoys as navigational aids to night traffic.
Most of the canal is limited to a single lane of traffic, but the canal has four doubled zone with 6 bypasses ( total length 80.5 Km ) can be found along the Canal, & this enables the transit of ships in both .