3-021-547 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Isthmus of Suez Maritime Canal: Ismailia and the fresh-water canal, [Egypt], 1869. A sketch '...by our Special Artist...of the Fresh-Water Canal at Ismailia, with the houses of the Egyptian Governor, of M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, manager and president of the Suez Canal Company, and of M. Voisin, or Voisin Bey, the engineer-in-chief, agreeably situated on its bank. The chalet of M. de Lesseps is to the left hand; the next house, with Oriental arches, is that of his chief engineer; and the Governor of Ismailia resides in the mansion beyond. These dwellings have a pleasant look-out over Lake Timsah...The new town of Ismailia, wholly created since 1862, has now more than 6000 inhabitants, of whom more than a third are Europeans. Two hotels, four or five cafes, a theatre where vaudevilles are performed with spirit, a pretty Roman Catholic chapel, a mosque for Arab workmen, a hospital and a telegraph-office, a long and well-built street with numerous well-stocked shops, a large square, and a public garden planned by French taste and cultivated with French assiduity, a fountain supplied with Nile water; these are the features which attract the attention of the stranger as he wanders through the town'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.