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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph b 



THE) SUEZ CANAI, AT KANTARA 



During the war, Kantara was the base of supplies for the Palestine military force. Its 

 wharves, flood-lighted at night, were scenes of great activity, and back of it on the desert 

 airplanes droned above the landing fields. Both foot-bridge and railway bridge crossed the 

 canal, so that a Cairo carriage could be carried to the hill overlooking Jerusalem. Now the 

 military stores have been distributed and Kantara is once more only a way station on the neck 

 of land which unites Asia and Africa. The railway bridge has been removed. 



This rise of Egypt to independence 

 and the separation of Syria, Palestine. 

 Mesopotamia, and Arabia from the old 

 Ottoman Empire throw open the whole 

 of this rich, long dormant land to barter 

 and free contact with the Christian world. 



Many important new channels of trade 

 and travel are now being opened in these 

 newly freed regions of the Aliddle East, 

 whose people and potentialities the Turk 

 so long and so cynically ignored. It is 

 not yet easy to say whether immigrant 

 Jews can really make a success at farm- 

 ing in Palestine in competition with set- 

 tled Arabs ; but with King Feisal on the 

 throne of Iraq at Bagdad, and the Brit- 

 ish at his elbow, we know what to expect 

 from Mesopotamian irrigation and oil 

 development. And the trade of Syria 

 under Greek and French stimulus is 

 bound to grow enormously. 



All these changes in the map, in trade 

 routes and economic relations must 



necessarily have a marked effect on the 

 new nation of Egypt. South of Egypt, 

 too, lies the great Sudan, destined to add 

 a vast area to the world's cotton-growing 

 territories. 



Till now Egypt, though so well known 

 in many ways, has always been singularly 

 aloof and isolated in her economic life. 

 Most of her trade has been with the na- 

 tions of western Europe. Greeks, Ital- 

 ians, and Austrians, settled in Cairo and 

 Alexandria, have practically dominated 

 Egyptian industry. Now, however, the 

 new railway built from Cairo to Jerusa- 

 lem ties up Egypt and the rest of Africa 

 with the most important parts of the old 

 Turkish Empire and indirectly with 

 Europe itself. Much of the sea trade that 

 formerly belonged to Smyrna and Stam- 

 boul will now reach its destination through 

 Alexandria and Port Said. 



With the near completion of the Cape- 

 to-Cairo line, it is easy to see what close 



