At Suez city, the Red Sea terminus of the great waterway, workers swarmed over docks and piers that had been empty for years. Buoys were being assembled, and pilot ships recaulked and overhauled. In the freshly painted warehouses, piles of new, sweet-smelling hemp rope rose like giant becalmed cobras in spirals to the ceilings. Canal pilots, the skilled men who guide ships through the narrow canal, were flocking back from all over the world. The Suez Canal, once the vital link between the West and the East, was being prepared for this week's gala...
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