The Suez Canal, located at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, and Africa, is one of the world's most important waterways. Opened in 1869, the sea-level artificial waterway crosses the narrow Isthmus of Suez joining Africa and Asia and permits oceangoing vessels to travel between the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean via the Gulf of Suez and Red Sea. The canal is owned and operated by Egypt and separates the main part of that country on the west bank from the Sinai Peninsula on the east bank.
The northern terminus is Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea. The canal extends southward in a nearly straight line across the eastern edge of the salt-marsh area of Lake Manzala and over the red desert soils of the isthmus to reach its midpoint at the northern end of Lake Timsah. It continues southward through Lake Timsah, where Ismailia and the administrative headquarters of the canal are located, then southward and southeastward through the Great and Little Bitter lakes (now a single lake) and southward again past the city of Suez to reach the Gulf of Suez at Port Taufiq.