Past Watch Site

Thought to have been the Roman port of Evangelon Portus mentioned by Ptolemy, Suakin Island on the Red Sea began to attract Arab traders in the tenth century. By the fifteenth century, it had become a key mercantile center for Mamluk Egypt, attracting Venetian and Indian merchants, who traded there until the Ottoman invasion of 1517. It was during the Ottoman occupation that many of the distinctive coral buildings for which the island is known were built. Although the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 briefly revived trade in and around Suakin, prosperity was not to last. The island was all but abandoned with the opening of Port Sudan in 1922.

Today, too few residents remain on Suakin to maintain the island’s historic coral and stone buildings, many of which have fallen into ruin as a result of water infiltration and exposure to corrosive airborn salts, which have damaged wooden elements of doorways and windows.

UPDATE

In 2008 Turkey announced its intention to help restore historic Ottoman architecture on Suakin Island through the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency . Preliminary work has been carried out on the island’s Hanafi and Shafi'i Mosques, as well as the old Customs Complex.    December 2010
 

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