One of the best places to appreciate the development of trade between Asia and Europe is aboard a ship in the Gulf of Suez, just south of the entrance to the 163km-long Suez Canal. (Click here to look at possible routes for transporting cargo in Asia and Europe.)
Every night a flotilla of huge container ships, some nearly 400m long, gathers in the area. They are ready to depart early the next morning on the daily northbound convoy through the canal from the Red Sea towards the Mediterranean and the vast consumer markets of Europe. Each ship carries goods worth hundreds of millions of euros, making the cargo of the dozen or more container ships heading north on a typical day worth several billion euros.
