Battle of Suez

1541 CE.

Shown on the map at 29.967°, 32.550°.

The Battle of Suez occurred in 1541 and was a failed attack by the Portuguese against the Ottomans. In 1541 the Portuguese fleet under the command of the Portuguese governor of India Estêvão da Gama and his brother Cristóvão da Gama penetrated into the Red Sea. The Portuguese fleet consisted of 80 ships and 2,300 soldiers. After sacking Suakin, the governor detached 16 light oarvessels and 250 picked men. The aim was to attack Suez but the attack was a failure as the heavy defence as well as the opposition of Davud Pasha and the Ottoman artillery forced the Portuguese to retreat. A few retreating Portuguese forces which landed at Massawa would be ambushed by the Adal Sultanate at the Battle of Massawa in the same year. For the duration of the 1541 Suez campaign, the Portuguese remained within the Red Sea for seven months, never being confronted by the Ottoman navy, while Muslim trade was paralysed.

Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Suez (1541), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Everything else in 1541 CE

HistoryLayer draws the world as it was in any year from 123,000 BCE to 2026. Move the slider and the borders redraw for that year; the map carries 23,890 events, 12,790 people, 837 wars and 13,183 cities, each one readable in place. Signing in is optional and lets you keep what you find.

HistoryLayer
1914CE
World Wars
123,000 BCE2026 CE
54 stops — one per surviving map on file, evenly spaced drag the pin · ←→ steps one stop the same 54 stops by true elapsed time ↑
Map & filters
Show on the map
Filter
Colour by
Polity Empire