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The Suez Canal (/ ˈ s uː. ɛ z /; Arabic: قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, Qanāt as-Suwais) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest of Egypt).
The Isthmus of Suez is the 125-kilometre-wide (78 mi) land bridge [1] that lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, east of the Suez Canal, the boundary between the continents of Africa and Asia. [2] To the south is the Gulf of Suez, dividing mainland Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula. The area is mostly flat and barren, with a few ...
The usual line taken to divide Africa from Asia today is at the Isthmus of Suez, the narrowest gap between the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Suez, the route today followed by the Suez Canal. This makes the Sinai Peninsula geographically Asian, and Egypt a transcontinental country.
To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez—leading to the Suez Canal. It is underlain by the Red Sea Rift , which is part of the Great Rift Valley . The Red Sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 km 2 (169,000 sq mi), [ 1 ] is about 2,250 km (1,400 mi) long, and 355 km (221 mi) wide at its widest point.
The term 'canal' is often used to describe both human-made canals and river navigations, whether free-flowing waterways, or those with locks and dams or weirs. List of lists [ edit ]
This figure rises to 1,400,000 by including Western Sinai, the parts of the Port Said, Ismailia and Suez Governorates lying east of the Suez Canal. Port Said alone has a population of roughly 500,000 people (January 2013). Portions of the populations of Ismailia and Suez live in west Sinai, while the rest live on the western side of the Suez Canal.
The Bab-el-Mandeb acts as a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Most exports of petroleum and natural gas from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal or the SUMED Pipeline pass through both the Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz. [4]
The gulf was formed within a relatively young but now inactive Gulf of Suez Rift rift basin, dating back about 26 million years. [1] It stretches some 300 kilometres (190 mi) north by northwest, terminating at the Egyptian city of Suez and the entrance to the Suez Canal. Along the mid-line of the gulf is the boundary between Africa and Asia. [2]