Learn about guests of Egypt at opening of Suez Canal in 1869

CAIRO – 16 November 2022: Six thousand guests attended the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal, which was held on November 16, 1869, in Port Said.

Five hundred cooks were called in from Marseille, Genoa and Trieste. Three green platforms covered with silk were erected, the largest of which was allocated to kings and princes, and the second to Islamic clerics, including Sheikh Mustafa Al-Arousi and Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Sakka. The third was dedicated to the Christian clergy.

Khedive Ismail, Monsieur de Lesseps, Empress Eugenie of France, Emperor of Austria François Joseph, King of Hungary, Crown Prince of Prussia, brother of the King of the Netherlands Prince Henry, Ambassadors of England and Russia to Constantinople, Crown Prince Mohammad Tawfiq, son of Mohammad Said Pasha Prince Toson, Sherif Pasha , Nubar Pasha, and Emir Abdelkader Al-Jazaery sat in the grand podium.

Also, Khedive Ismail summoned 500 chefs and servants from France and Italy, in addition to the cooks and servants from the Egyptians and Turks who were in his service.

Foreign newspapers sent their correspondents to cover the news of the celebration. The invitees began to arrive to Alexandria on October 15, 1869. Trips were prepared for them to Upper Egypt across the Nile in ships that were prepared and equipped for this purpose before the start of the official opening festival. Khedive Ismail spent unparalleled extravagance at the opening.

It is worth mentioning that the cost of the celebration amounted to L.E 2.4 million, which at the time was a huge amount of money. The number of guests in Ismailia during the canal concerts reached about 100,000 foreigners and Egyptians. 

Five months after the Suez Canal opening, the opera house was built at a cost of L.E160,000.