Suez

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For the French company, see SUEZ

northermost part of Gulf of Suez with town Suez on the map of 1856

El Salam Carducci 82 ship docked at Suez port, March 2006

Suez (Arabic: السويس as-Suways) is a port town (population ca. 497,000) in northeastern Egypt, located on the Gulf of Suez, near the mouth of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate, at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It has two harbors, Port Ibrahim and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities. Rail lines and highways connect the city with Cairo and Port Said. Suez has a petrochemical plant, and its oil refineries have pipelines carrying the finished product to Cairo.

Suez is a way station for Muslim pilgrims traveling to and from Mecca. In the 7th century a town near the site of present-day Suez was the eastern terminus of a canal linking the Nile River and the Red Sea. In the 16th century Suez was a Turkish naval station. Its importance as a port increased after the Suez Canal opened in 1859. 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 Second Arab-Israeli War in 1967. Reconstruction of Suez began soon after Egypt reopened the Suez Canal, following the October 1973 war with Israel.