Read "Asiatic Breezes" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The cabin party of the Guardian-Mother were on the promenade in time to observe the entrance into Lake Timsah. It is near the seventy-five kilometre post from Port Said, or half way through the canal to the head of the Gulf of Suez, the most northern portion of the Red Sea. The city of Suez is several miles to the south-west of this point; for Lesseps, for some reason said to be political, avoided the old town, and carried the canal to the other side of the inlet, and below it.
Lake Timsah has an area of about six square miles. It is not a deep body of water, and the canal had to be built through it as through Lake Menzaleh. Its water is now of a pale blue, very pretty to look at. Before any work was done here, it was a mere pond, filled with reeds; but it has been cleaned out and made more healthy for the surrounding country.