70
The Suez Canal
sand to mud is very gradual. The western shore is much steeper, much more wavebattered and therefore the bottom is heterogenous, sometimes with a considerable
amount of shell and gravel and locally even with rocky outcrops.
The litde we know of the deeper and shallow bottoms of the Litde Bitter Lake
seems to indicate that there are no radical differences from the Great Bitter Lake:
the sediments seem to be coarser and rocky outcrops more frequent.
The shores of the Bitter Lakes are generally sandy however, locally and especially in the northern and northeastern corner, a beachrock-like formation is
found. There are also small segments of shore covered with boulders.
The fauna and flora which develop on the boulders will be discussed in the
following chapter. The beachrock is probably a relatively new formation. Gruvel
(1936) made good photographs of the beachrock layer and the legend calls it "tuf
vaseux noir". Por (1971 b) mentions it as a "presently building-up peculiar beachrock". Finally, Lipkin (1972b) delves into more detail of the genesis of the Bitter
Lake beachrock: according to hirn, blue-green algae of the genus Lyngbia cover
the sediment with a crust and filaments penetrate between the sediment particles,
packing them together. The process is repeated in the opposite direction when
new sediment is added and covers the original crust; filaments grow upward
through the new sediment layer until a new surface crust is established. The
process, which results in precipitation of interstitial calcium carbonate, is repeated several times. Por (1971 b) attributes a role to the sponges, ascidians and
Brachidontes byssus in the ce menta ti on of sediment, as weIl as to bituminous
residues of oil. The characteristic alga growing on the litt oral hard bottoms is
Digenea simplex (Lipkin, 1972 b).
When speaking of the bottoms and shores of the Bitter Lakes, the littoral
layers of dead shell and echinoderms must be mentioned. These form thick and
extremely rich collecting grounds for those interested in the fauna of the Lakes.
These litt oral accumulations have been mentioned by all the authors who collected in the Lakes and they are indicative of a very rich animallife.
A few words remain to be said about the bottom of the southern stretch of the
Suez Canal, between the Bitter Lakes and Suez harbor. The bottom is stilllocally
muddy but the shores are marly with some rocky outcrops. Gruvel again mentions the presence of the "tuf argileux" which is probably the above-mentioned
beach rock. At Shallufa the Canal passes between rocky banks and as one advances
further towards Suez, the bottoms become more and more rocky. In this last
stretch of the Canal, there is, according to Gruvel, again a rich population of
Branchiostoma lanceolatum.
2.5 The Biota of the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal should justifiably be considered and investigated as an environment for life per se. Although basically man-made, it has (at least in some
stretches), a past history of natural existence and can be considered by every
standard as a chain of several lagoon environments. As pointed out by several
authors, but most satisfactorily by H. Steinitz (1968) the Suez Canal is not only a
pathway but also a habitat. Although at times the Suez Canal was seen only as a
The Suez Canal
sand to mud is very gradual. The western shore is much steeper, much more wavebattered and therefore the bottom is heterogenous, sometimes with a considerable
amount of shell and gravel and locally even with rocky outcrops.
The litde we know of the deeper and shallow bottoms of the Litde Bitter Lake
seems to indicate that there are no radical differences from the Great Bitter Lake:
the sediments seem to be coarser and rocky outcrops more frequent.
The shores of the Bitter Lakes are generally sandy however, locally and especially in the northern and northeastern corner, a beachrock-like formation is
found. There are also small segments of shore covered with boulders.
The fauna and flora which develop on the boulders will be discussed in the
following chapter. The beachrock is probably a relatively new formation. Gruvel
(1936) made good photographs of the beachrock layer and the legend calls it "tuf
vaseux noir". Por (1971 b) mentions it as a "presently building-up peculiar beachrock". Finally, Lipkin (1972b) delves into more detail of the genesis of the Bitter
Lake beachrock: according to hirn, blue-green algae of the genus Lyngbia cover
the sediment with a crust and filaments penetrate between the sediment particles,
packing them together. The process is repeated in the opposite direction when
new sediment is added and covers the original crust; filaments grow upward
through the new sediment layer until a new surface crust is established. The
process, which results in precipitation of interstitial calcium carbonate, is repeated several times. Por (1971 b) attributes a role to the sponges, ascidians and
Brachidontes byssus in the ce menta ti on of sediment, as weIl as to bituminous
residues of oil. The characteristic alga growing on the litt oral hard bottoms is
Digenea simplex (Lipkin, 1972 b).
When speaking of the bottoms and shores of the Bitter Lakes, the littoral
layers of dead shell and echinoderms must be mentioned. These form thick and
extremely rich collecting grounds for those interested in the fauna of the Lakes.
These litt oral accumulations have been mentioned by all the authors who collected in the Lakes and they are indicative of a very rich animallife.
A few words remain to be said about the bottom of the southern stretch of the
Suez Canal, between the Bitter Lakes and Suez harbor. The bottom is stilllocally
muddy but the shores are marly with some rocky outcrops. Gruvel again mentions the presence of the "tuf argileux" which is probably the above-mentioned
beach rock. At Shallufa the Canal passes between rocky banks and as one advances
further towards Suez, the bottoms become more and more rocky. In this last
stretch of the Canal, there is, according to Gruvel, again a rich population of
Branchiostoma lanceolatum.
2.5 The Biota of the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal should justifiably be considered and investigated as an environment for life per se. Although basically man-made, it has (at least in some
stretches), a past history of natural existence and can be considered by every
standard as a chain of several lagoon environments. As pointed out by several
authors, but most satisfactorily by H. Steinitz (1968) the Suez Canal is not only a
pathway but also a habitat. Although at times the Suez Canal was seen only as a