Pause Cairo: Play Suez (Part 1 - Exploration)

I left Cairo on Saturday morning to visit Suez to run a few errands. Since I have never visited the city before, I decided to explore it while I was there. The El-Suez road wasn't that long, being approximately 120 km from the fringes of Cairo. The road itself was relatively uneventful, with desert consuming the view from the car's windows on either side. The road is two lanes wide either way, and littered with large lorries transporting goods between Cairo and Suez. Suez is known for it's harbors (Port Tawfik and Port Ibrahim), and hardly much else; The harbors straddle the gulf of Suez, and therefore the city is of strategic importance in trade and politics, as well as a gateway into the Suez Canal from the Red Sea.

The city is quite small, with the governate boundaries coinciding with the city's limits. It was also seen as an important town in the past, with a branch of the Nile river reaching the town even before the canal was dug in the 19th century. It was used as a naval station by the Turks in the 16th century.

I was not there to marvel at the harbors or the constant flow of trucks carrying exports and imports going to and from the sea. I wanted to explore more of the city itself and the people that lived there. I knew it would be relatively easy since it wasn't that big. I found it even easier there when I talked to people and found them to be very friendly and helpful (That was a major plus considering I am Egyptian myself, as everyone in Egypt would be friendly to foreigners anyways.)

El-Corniche is one of the large, beautiful and, most of all, lonely boulevards of Suez

I drove around aimlessly at first, but eventually found myself on El-Corniche, which is the road between the sea and the city. It was large and well paved, and meticulously clean for an Egyptian city. It was also unusually empty with only the occasional car cruising past or person walking by. On one side of the road, a large statue of a soldier holding up a flag stared aimlessly into the distance with his mouth wide open. There was no plaque to provide information on the soldier, but I assumed it was to commemorate the soldiers who fought in third Arab Israeli war in 1967, where the city was abandoned for almost 6 years due to the fighting. This was not the only statue or mural in Suez with images of soldiers and war themes. Due to the strategic area Suez occupied, it featured in many wars, and the history was clearly etched in stone.

The statue of a soldier stares into the distance with a look of perpetual surprise and an arm out on El-Corniche

I moved on closer to Port Tawfik where I found turquise brine lakes and canals snaking through the city. I found a man and his two sons fishing with old fashioned bamboo rods that lacked reels, and just had a some line attached to one end, with a bobble and hook dipped in the water. I asked him what he was fishing for, and told me the brine waters were home to Shabar, a small tilapia fish similar to Nile water Bolti. I asked him where the fish market was here and he gave me directions leading deep into downtown Suez.

One of the brine canals of Suez

The wide boulevards near the sea started becoming progressively narrower and more crowded as I headed deeper inland, with older apartments covered in bright peeling paint. I drove into a small side street, with barely enough width for a car. As I slowly started to doubt the directions I received earlier, the buildings and roads stopped suddenly, and I found myself in a large sea of umbrellas, stalls, and people. I parked my car quickly and got out to the sounds of sellers yelling out small rhymes to attract customers to their stalls. I was in the middle of the city's vegetable market. I browsed the culture rather than the produce, and walked through the vast crowded market savoring the sounds and smells. I came across a woman selling fish amidst the vegetables, and knew that I was inching closer to the fish stands. I asked for a few more directions and found myself amidst piles and piles of fish of all sorts, ranging from sardines to sharks.

An assortment of fish, crabs and shrimp in one of the stalls of the traditional fish market

Mohammed, the son of a fish trader poses with the market serving as his backdrop

I was feeling a little hungry, so I left the market to explore Suez cuisine.  After asking around for a little while, it became clear that eating out wasn't a Suez thing to do, and most of the shops only provided breakfasts in the form of Fool We Ta'miya which are baked fava beans and fried fava bean paste. I decided that a light breakfast would do, so I asked a young man which breakfast place around here was one worth visiting. He gave me directions to Abu Rawash, which was located in a side street.

This narrow side street was called Bank Misr St., but I doubt it was called that throughout history. It contained Abu Rawash on one side and the mysterious church on the other.

I enjoyed the light breakfast, but was distracted. As I munched on a small sandwich, I stared up with curiousity at what seemed to be a large abandoned church on the other side of the narrow road. I walked around it and found another ancient building with Greek Consulate written on a small black sign hung on the door. There were two men sitting in front of the building with walkie-talkies, so I decided to ask them about it.

 The church's roof was adorned with stone crosses

 The stained glass windows were broken amidst other signs of obvious abandonment

Hassan was the name of one of the guards. He explained to me how the church and consulate were part of a Greek mission to Suez, and that they were hundreds of years old. He was assigned by the police to guard them as they were considered important pieces of architecture with historical value. Through my eyes, I did see the value, but I also saw a lot of neglect. Hassan said it might be open sometime in the future to tourists, after they finish building a museum celebrating Suez's history, near port Tawfik.

Part of the abandoned Greek Consulate building in Suez

Currently, Suez isn't really seen as a place to visit out of interest and curiosity. I believe however it does have the potential, and as much as I would hate to see it being over-run by tourists, it is in need of some restoration and perhaps an interest in visiting Suez could spark just that.