Ismailia, also called Al Isma'iliyah, city in northeastern Egypt, capital of the governorate of Ismailia on Lake Timsah, near the Mediterranean Sea. The city was designed in 1863 by the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps as the operational base during construction of the Suez Canal. Ismailia was named for Ismail Pasha, khedive of Egypt. Israeli forces shelled the city in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, causing a large part of the city's population to evacuate. Population (1992 estimate) 255,000.
