The Panama Canal is one of the most spectacular sights in Panama. It is really amazing to see how the locks fill up and the big ships pass between the green lush mountains. Of course, the best way to see the canal is to travel through it by ship. But if you unable to make this journey, you can arrange trips to see the canal from Panama city.

Miraflores locks is on the Pacific entrance and has a new visitors center. During the guided tour, you will be taken to a room with a scale map layout of the canal, where they will show you how the route goes from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Outside you can see ships going through the small locks.

Gatun locks are on the Atlantic entrance. These are by far the largest locks. As you sit on the platform, you can see the ships approaching from the caribbean side.. Each one goes through three sets of locks. In each one, the locks are closed, filled with water to raise the ship up to the level of the next one, and then the cycle repeats. Finally, you see the ship moving out to the Lake Chagres, a former river which was dammed to accummulate water to fill the locks.

Further down, halfway to the Pacific, there is the city of Gamboa. Here the ships leave Lake Chagres and go in the Gaillard Cut (Culebra cut in Spanish). This is the most challenging and the narrowest part of the canal. This is the portion where the mountains literally had to be cut to create the waterway. At this stage, only one ship can go in one direction, but currently there is construction to widen it. From here there are two more sets of lock, the Don Pedro and the Miraflores, which are much smaller.

The Panama Canal is definitely worth seeingt .It was an amazing engineering feat at the turn of the century.

While in Panama City, be sure to visit the Canal Administration Building on top of the hill. There you can see incredible murals in the ceiling depicting the process of building the canal. Entrance is free.