Its distinctive features are its numerous old houses with grand balconies, each one on all floors. Port Said’s twin city is Port Fuad, located on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal.
These two cities are linked by ferries, forming a metropolitan area with more than one million people, on both the African and Asian sides of the Suez Canal. Istanbul is the only other metropolitan area in the world that shares this quality.
Since its inception, Port Said has been a vibrant global city. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was home to numerous different nationalities and religions who lived peacefully and in tolerance.
This prompted Rudyard Kipling to declare that “If you truly wish to find someone you have known and who travels, there are two points on the globe you have but to sit and wait, sooner or later your man will come there: the docks of London and Port Said”.
