Wender·Vista
Ismailia
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileEgypt
on Lake Timsah, halfway down the Suez Canal

Ismailia

— — the canal cooling toward dusk.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A canal town built for a single purpose. Khedive Isma'il laid it out in 1863 as headquarters for the Suez crew, on the western bank of Lake Timsah, halfway between Port Said and Suez. The European quarter still holds its low villas and palm avenues. From the corniche the great ships pass in slow, unhurried convoys, freight stacks moving above the rooftops. — from the studio

from the studio
Ismailia
— bring it home

Ismailia, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Ismailia

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Ismailia is a city of roughly 400,000 on the western shore of Lake Timsah, the wider basin the Suez Canal passes through on its run between Port Said and Suez. It was founded in 1863 by Khedive Isma'il Pasha as the construction base for the canal, and named for him; Ferdinand de Lesseps lived here through the works. The Sweet Water Canal, drawn from the Nile at Cairo, reached the site that year and made the desert town possible. It is the seat of the Suez Canal Authority.

— informed by Wikipedia — Ismailia
— the water

Lake Timsah, the Lake of the Crocodile, is a brackish lake of about 14 square kilometres formed where the Suez Canal widens between two narrower cuts. The canal itself, opened in November 1869, runs 193 kilometres from the Mediterranean at Port Said to the Gulf of Suez. Convoys move through the canal in north and south rotations each day, and from the Ismailia corniche the ships read as towers crossing the desert. A small beach on the lake's south side is the city's summer swim.

— informed by Wikipedia — Suez Canal
— the visit

The Ismailia Museum, founded in 1932, holds artefacts from the surrounding stretch of canal country — Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic, and Islamic — including a notable Roman mosaic floor. The de Lesseps House on Mohamed Ali Quay preserves the engineer's belongings as a small museum. Ismailia is reached from Cairo by road in about two and a half hours, or by train on the Cairo–Ismailia line. The cooler months from November through March are the comfortable season for walking the corniche and the French quarter.

— where
Egypt · Ismailia Governorate
— position
30.5965° N · 32.2715° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
80 km N
Port Said
city
85 km S
Suez
city
120 km W
Cairo
city
N
Ismailia
Port Said
Suez
Cairo
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Ismailia — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Ismailia sits on the western bank of Lake Timsah, halfway down the Suez Canal between Port Said to the north and the city of Suez to the south, in northeastern Egypt.

Khedive Isma'il Pasha laid out Ismailia in 1863 as the construction headquarters for the Suez Canal. The town was named for him and housed the canal workforce and its engineers.

Lake Timsah, the Lake of the Crocodile, is a brackish lake of about 14 square kilometres that the Suez Canal passes through. Its name comes from crocodiles that once lived there.

The Suez Canal opened in November 1869 after ten years of construction under Ferdinand de Lesseps. It runs 193 kilometres from Port Said on the Mediterranean to Suez on the Red Sea.

The Ismailia Museum holds a Roman mosaic floor and artefacts from across the canal zone. The de Lesseps House on the corniche preserves the engineer's belongings, and the European quarter retains its older villas.

Ismailia is about two and a half hours by road from Cairo via the Ismailia Desert Road, or roughly three hours by train on the Cairo–Ismailia line that runs along the Sweet Water Canal.

— about the piece in your home

It carries for people who lived or worked in Ismailia, Port Said, or Suez. The piece reads as the lake and the corniche rather than the industrial canal. A Medium or Small travels well.

The piece sits well with warm Mediterranean, North African modern, and quiet colonial-style rooms. The palette of lake blue, palm green, and washed limestone moves with rattan, raw linen, and unpolished brass.

The Ismailia colours — Timsah blue, sun-bleached cream, palm green — sit cleanly in Mediterranean-modern rooms. A Small reads above a console; a Large carries a quiet wall behind a sofa.

A single Large is the standard piece above a sofa. A 4-tile Mural opens the composition for a wider wall; a 9-tile Mural carries a long entry wall or a corridor behind a console.

Yes, on the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both resist scratching and humidity and install well as a backsplash, on a vanity wall, or inside a shower surround.

A microfibre cloth and water. The colour lives inside the ceramic surface, so the tile cleans like a plate. Skip abrasive pads and ammonia-based sprays.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to the studio, curated by Reid Wender. We don't license outside imagery, and each place enters the atlas as a single, considered painting.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.