The canal also connects it to the Small Bitter Lake (Arabic: البحيرة المرة الصغرى; transliterated: al-Buhayrah al-Murra as-Sughra).

[5][6] In the early 20th century, the minimum and maximum values were measured as 4.5% and 5.4%, respectively, with an average salinity of 4.9% (i.e. 49 g of salt per kg of lake water).

[5] When the Suez Canal was closed for eight years, beginning during the Six-Day War in 1967, the salinity of the lake increased substantially.

While this makes it difficult for plant life to exist there, many species (of crabs, for example) migrate from the Red Sea through the area.

Nevertheless, some seaweed was found on the eastern side of the lake, giving a slight hope of prolific biotope.

[11] In 1998, Hoenselaar and Dekker studied the material collected in 1950 by Beets (1953), in which they discovered a total of 44 gastropods and 47 bivalve species in the lake.

[11] The gastropods Pusulina radiata and Cyclope neritea, and the bivalves Cerastoderma glauca and Tapes decussatus are the only anti-Lessepsian species that are originally from the Mediterranean Sea.

[14] The Great Bitter Lake’s bottom soil is mainly composed of mud and sand (mostly carbonate),[11] which can be related to the extensive and continuous drilling activities happening in the Suez Canal for its expansion.

In the recent years, a major part of heavy-metal pollution has originated from overpopulation, industrialization, sewage, dumpsites, crude-oil spills, agricultural chemicals, and more.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, having flown directly from the Yalta Conference, met on board the heavy cruiser USS Quincy with Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud.

[16] President Roosevelt's interpreter was U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Bill Eddy, who recorded the men's conversation in his book FDR Meets Ibn Saud.

Stranded cargo included various perishables (such as eggs and fruit), T-shirts, and a load of toys destined for Woolworth's.