El Qantara
Coordinates: 30 ° 51 ′ N , 32 ° 19 ′ E
El Qantara , also El Kantara, Al Qantara, Al-Qantarah and differently transcribed, Arabic القنطرة, DMG al-Qanṭara ("the bridge"), is a city in northeast Egypt south of Port Said near the exit of the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea and north of Ismailia in the governorate of al-Ismaʿiliyya .
The city has about 25,000 inhabitants and consists of two districts: Al Qantara Al Sharqiya east of the canal and Al Qantara Al Gharbiya a little south on the west side. Al Qantara means bridge in Arabic and is an essential function of the city. The Suez Canal Bridge , built from 1992 to 1997 as the successor to earlier structures, crosses the canal in the south of El Gharbiya.
The old caravan and pilgrimage town is not only on the route and the railway connection Port Said - Ismailia but also on the road to al-Arish, which was built in 1916 .
The city was the site of armed conflicts several times during colonial times. There is a military cemetery for those killed in the First and Second World Wars. The Suez crisis in 1956 did not leave the city untouched. The city was temporarily under Israeli control in the 1967 Six Day War , bombings took place in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and Egypt was not formally regained control of the city until the following year.