3-021-554 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Isthmus of Suez Maritime Canal: the Pelusian Plain, 1869. 'The Maritime Canal is to extend from the newly-constructed artificial harbour of Port Saïd, on the Pelusian coast of the Mediterranean, to the port of Suez, at the head of the Red Sea...As the Menzaleh lake is on the west, the plain of Pelusus is on the east side of the Suez Canal. This plain is, in fact, the portion of the lake which has been filled up and become solid ground - a process which has been evidently going on for many a day. As islands on the lake are the features on the one side, small lakes on the plain form the distinctive character of the other. The highway from Palestine, Syria, and Persia came by this plain; a road still exists, and a ferry had to be established at Kantara, which word expresses ferry, and tells of the former existence of the means of crossing the waters of the lake at this place...The country on this part of the coast is exceedingly flat. On approaching the sea large lagoons are seen, formed by the inundations of two branches of the Nile; beyond this is a narrow strip of sand, scarcely rising above the sea-level'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.