44
The Suez Canal
Fig.16. Aerial photograph of northern section of the Suez CanaI, with Port Said in background and Lake Manzala on left (courtesy LD.F., JerusaIem)
of fresh water is an outlet of the fresh water canal from the Nile which provides
drinking and irrigation water to the region. After 1891 the fresh-water canal was
continued north and from then on only overflows reached the lake. However, the
developing agricuhure supplied much run off. The Mediterranean waters reached
Lake Timsah for the first time in 1863, but the filling up of the depression continued intermittently and was finished only in 1867. More will be said about Lake
Timsah in the discussion ofthe biota ofthe Suez Canal.
Between Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lake there is a stretch of 16 km. The
shores ofthe Canal are strengthened for their whole length with a stone covering.
At Km 92 the ridge of Serapeum reaches a maximum height of 10 m, and at some
distance along the African shore there are several isolated sah pools (the pools of
Nefiche).
The Bitter Lake is the central and most important waterbody of the Suez
Canal (Fig.19). According to Thorson's (1971) calculation, it contains 85% of the
waters of the Canal system. The total length of the Lake is 36 km, but at the
prornontory of Kabrit there is a narrowing to a strait ab out 2 km wide, which
separates the basin into a northern part (the Great Bitter Lake with a maximum
width of 13 km) and a much narrower southern part (the Little Bitter Lake).
The basin ofthe Bitter Lakes, the "Pikre Limne" of antiquity was a "sabkha"like salt swamp into which very high tides of the Gulf of Suez flooded (Linant,
1860). Water was present especially along the shores where also vegetation
(chiefly Tamarix thickets) evolved ("La foret d'Ambach"). According to Aillaud
(1868) this "forest", ab out 7 km long and 2 km wide, was inhabited by a rich fauna
of water birds. The center of the depression was occupied by a salt mass 13.20 m
(de Lesseps, 1871, 1876a) or even 18.20 m thick (Gruvel, 1936) and covering a
The Suez Canal
Fig.16. Aerial photograph of northern section of the Suez CanaI, with Port Said in background and Lake Manzala on left (courtesy LD.F., JerusaIem)
of fresh water is an outlet of the fresh water canal from the Nile which provides
drinking and irrigation water to the region. After 1891 the fresh-water canal was
continued north and from then on only overflows reached the lake. However, the
developing agricuhure supplied much run off. The Mediterranean waters reached
Lake Timsah for the first time in 1863, but the filling up of the depression continued intermittently and was finished only in 1867. More will be said about Lake
Timsah in the discussion ofthe biota ofthe Suez Canal.
Between Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lake there is a stretch of 16 km. The
shores ofthe Canal are strengthened for their whole length with a stone covering.
At Km 92 the ridge of Serapeum reaches a maximum height of 10 m, and at some
distance along the African shore there are several isolated sah pools (the pools of
Nefiche).
The Bitter Lake is the central and most important waterbody of the Suez
Canal (Fig.19). According to Thorson's (1971) calculation, it contains 85% of the
waters of the Canal system. The total length of the Lake is 36 km, but at the
prornontory of Kabrit there is a narrowing to a strait ab out 2 km wide, which
separates the basin into a northern part (the Great Bitter Lake with a maximum
width of 13 km) and a much narrower southern part (the Little Bitter Lake).
The basin ofthe Bitter Lakes, the "Pikre Limne" of antiquity was a "sabkha"like salt swamp into which very high tides of the Gulf of Suez flooded (Linant,
1860). Water was present especially along the shores where also vegetation
(chiefly Tamarix thickets) evolved ("La foret d'Ambach"). According to Aillaud
(1868) this "forest", ab out 7 km long and 2 km wide, was inhabited by a rich fauna
of water birds. The center of the depression was occupied by a salt mass 13.20 m
(de Lesseps, 1871, 1876a) or even 18.20 m thick (Gruvel, 1936) and covering a