Construction of the Suez Canal, from 1856-1869, required the dredging and reshaping of marshes and arid desert land into multiple new cities changing the environment, forever. Focusing on the 19th and early 20th century, I argue that the Suez Canal port cities were important nodes to a global economy and were central to connecting Europe to colonies in the East. Using an interdisciplinary method, I examine both urban development and environmental history on the periphery in Egypt, through the case studies of Port Saïd, Isma’ilia and Suez, decentering Cairo and Alexandria as the exemplars of modernity. The building of canals, dikes and their maintenance for irrigation were to control water with the aim to grow foodstuffs, reclaim land and in the case of the new Suez Canal towns, provide clean drinking water for the growing populations. Water, also, became a new symbol in urban squares and gardens of the burgeoning towns of Port Saïd and Isma’ilia, representative of its’ powerful nature. Water and irrigation have been carefully studied in Egyptian historiography with a concentration on the Nile Valley. Studying these provincial cities opens up new avenues of research on towns outside of Cairo. In Port Saïd, Isma’ilia and Suez the creation of the Isma’ilia canal, connected to the Nile near Cairo, was essential to the development of these growing centers of global transportation, trade and commerce. In addition, the new canal fed the dream of massive land reclamation that would green the landscape adjacent to the Ismailia canal, as well as around the new urban centers on the Suez Canal. My sources include Ministry of Public Works and Department of Agriculture reports on irrigation and works projects in Egypt, as well as travelogues, travel guides, periodicals, photography, and town plans. Through these sources I show the centrality of water, like in the Nile valley, to the building processes of the new provincial urban fabrics of Port Saïd, Isma’ilia and Suez.