17 Facts About Port Said

Port Said acted as a global city since its establishment and flourished particularly during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century when it was inhabited by various nationalities and religions.

Port Said was founded by Sa'id of Egypt on Easter Monday, April 25,1859, when Ferdinand de Lesseps gave the first symbolic swing of the pickaxe to signal the beginning of construction.

Everything Port Said needed had to be imported: wood, stone, supplies, machinery, equipment, housing, food and even water.

Port Said Fouad was designed by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Port Said by now was a thriving, bustling international port with a multi-national population: Jewish merchants, Egyptian shopkeepers, Greek photographers, Italian architects, Swiss hoteliers, Maltese administrators, Scottish engineers, French bankers and diplomats from all around the world.

Related searches

In 1976, Port Said was declared a duty-free port, attracting people from all over Egypt.

Port Said has been ranked the second among the Egyptian cities according to the Human Development Index in 2009 and 2010; the economic base of the city is fishing and industries, like chemicals, processed food, and cigarettes.

Port Said is an important harbour for exports of Egyptian products like cotton and rice, and additionally a fueling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal.

Port Said has a hot desert climate according to Koppen climate classification, but blowing winds from the Mediterranean Sea greatly moderates the temperatures, typical to the northern coast of Egypt, making its summers moderately hot and humid while its winters mild and moderately wet when sleet and hail are common, yet less common than in Alexandria because Port Said is drier.

Port Said University is a public university that follows the Egyptian system of higher education.

Port Said contains about 349 schools in all different educational stages between governmental, experimental, private language schools beside French historical schools.

Port of Port Said is the 28th-busiest seaport for container transport, the second-busiest in the Arab world, and the busiest container seaport in Egypt, with 3,470,000 TEU transported in 2009.

Port Said is bordered, seaward, by an imaginary line from the western breakwater boundary till the eastern breakwater end.

The travel time between Cairo and Port Said is about four hours while the Alexandria – Port Said route can be covered in about six hours.

Port Said is linked by ferry to its twin city Port Fouad which is considered the Asian part of this Afro-Asian governorate "Port Said" on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, the ferry is used to cross the canal between the two cities, holding both people and cars as well.

Second most popular sport in Port Said is handball, and the city has a club called Port Said Club that won many local and African tournaments during the nineties.

Port Said Hall is an indoor hall located in the Sports City in Port Said.