Great Bitter Lake
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- For other places called Bitter Lake, see Bitter Lake.
The Great Bitter Lake (Arabic: البحيرة المرة الكبرى; transliterated: al-Buhayrah al-Murra al-Kubra) is a salt water lake between the north and south part of the Suez Canal. It is adjoined by the Small Bitter Lake (Arabic: البحيرة المرة الصغرى; transliterated: al-Buhayrah al-Murra as-Sughra), separated by a contraction. Together, the Bitter Lakes have a surface area of about 250 km². To the north, the canal also runs through Lake Manzala and Lake Timsah.
As the canal has no locks, sea water flows freely into the lake from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, replacing water lost to evaporation. The lake acts as a buffer for the canal, reducing the effect of tidal currents.
On February 14, 1945, on the Great Bitter Lake, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, having flown directly from the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin, met on board the cruiser USS Quincy with Saudi Arabia's King Ibn Saud. FDR's interpreter was the only other English speaker at the meeting. There is no known record of that discussion. [Sources for this are referenced in Klare, Michael, Blood and Oil (Henry Holt, NY, 2004)p. 35, & 218n.)].
During the Six-Day War in 1967, the canal was closed, leaving 14 ships trapped in the lake until 1975. These ships became known as the "Yellow Fleet", because of the desert sands which soon covered their decks. A number of local postage stamps (or rather, decorative labels, since they had no postal validity) were created by the crews, which are sought after by collectors.
[edit] External links
- Melampus in Suez- the tale of a sailor of the MS Melampus, one of the ships trapped in the lake in 1967.
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