There seems to have always been
an interest in linking the
Mediterranean and Red Seas, because such a link would greatly shorten the
time required for trade goods that would otherwise require a considerably
longer sea voyage or shipment overland. Most of the early efforts were directed
towards a link from the
Nile to the Red Sea,
thus indirectly linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean through the Nile. Strabo and Pliny record
that the earliest effort was directed by
Senusret III,
but no evidence that there was an actual canal built exists. The earliest
efforts may have actually occurred at the command of
Seti I or
Ramesses II
during
the 13th century BC.
According to the Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton, under
Necho II (610-595 BC) a canal was
built between the Pelusian branch
of the Nile and the northern end of the Bitter Lakes (which lies between the
two seas) at a cost of, reportedly, 100,000 lives. However, over many years,
the canal fell into disrepair, only to be extended, abandoned, and rebuilt
again. After having been neglected, it was rebuilt by the Persian
ruler, Darius I (522-486 BC), whose canal can still be seen along the Wadi
Tumilat. According to Herodotus, his canal was wide enough that two
triremes could pass each
other
with oars extended, and that it took four days to navigate. He commemorated
the completion of his canal with a series of granite stelae set up along the
Nile bank.
This canal is said to have been extended to the Red Sea by
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
(285-246 BC), abandoned during the early Roman rule, but rebuilt again by
Trajan (98-117 AD). Over the next several centuries, it once again was
abandoned and sometimes dredged by various rulers for various but limited
purposes. Amr Ibn el-As rebuilt the canal after the Islamic takeover of
Egypt creating a new supply line from
Cairo,
but in 767 AD, the Abbasid
caliph El-Mansur closed the canal a final time to cut off supplies to
insurgents located in the Delta. Of course, over time, ships grew in size
and so the ancient attempts to connect the two seas would not have
worked anyway today.
The first efforts to build a modern canal came from the Egypt expedition
of Napoleon Bonaparte, who hoped the project would create a devastating
trade problem for the English. Though this project was begun in 1799 by
Charles Le Pere, a miscalculation estimated
that the levels between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were too great (estimating that the Red
Sea was some ten meters higher than that of the Mediterranean Sea) and work was quickly
suspended.
Then, in 1833, a group of French intellectuals known as the
Saint-Simoniens arrived in Cairo and
they became very interested in the Suez project
despite such problems as the difference in sea levels. Unfortunately,
at that time
Mohammed Ali had little interest in the project, and in 1835,
the Saint-Simoniens were devastated by a plague epidemic.
Most of the
twenty or so engineers returned to France. They did leave behind several enthusiasts
for the canal, including Ferdinand de Lesseps (who was then the French
vice-consul in Alexandria) and Linant de Bellefonds
In Paris, the Saint-Simoniens created an association in 1846 to study the
possibility of the Suez Canal once again. In 1847, Bourdaloue
confirmed that there was no real difference in the levels between the
Mediterranean and Red Seas, and it was Linant de
Bellefonds that drew up the
technical report. Unfortunately, there was considerable British opposition
to the project, and Mohammed Ali, who was ill by this time, was less than
enthusiastic.
However, Pasha
Said was very open to European influence, and in fact, was a childhood
friend of Vicomte Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps, who ended up founding the La
Campagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez (Universal Company of the
Maritime Suez Canal) in 1858 to build the canal. This was a private company,
which would build
the
canal under an agreement allowing it to operate the canal for 99 years,
after which it would revert to Egyptian government ownership.
The pilot study estimated that a total of 2,613 million cubic feet of earth would have to be moved, including 600 million on land, and another 2,013 million dredged from water. The total original cost estimate was two hundred million francs.
When at first the company ran into financial
problems, it was Pasha Said who purchased 44 percent of the company to
keep it in operation. However, the British and Turks were concerned
with the venture and managed to have work suspended for a short time, until
the intervention of Napoleon III. Excavation of the canal actually
began on April 25th, 1859, and between then and 1862, the first
part of the canal was completed. However, after Ismail succeeded Pasha
Said in 1863, the work was again suspended. After Ferdinand De Lesseps
again appealed to Napoleon III, an international commission was formed in
March of 1864. The commission resolved the problems and within three
years, the canal was completed. On November 17, 1869 the barrage of
the Suez plains reservoir was breached and waters of the Mediterranean
flowed into the Red Sea.
The
total original cost of building the canal was about $100 million,
about twice its original estimated coast. However, about three times
that sum was spent on later repairs and improvements.
The completion of the Suez Canal was a cause for considerable celebration. In Port Said, the extravaganza began with fireworks and a ball attended by six thousand people. They included many heads of state, including the Empress Eugenie, the Emperor of Austria, the Prince of Wales, the Prince of Prussia and the Prince of the Netherlands. Two convoys of ships entered the canal from its southern and northern points and met at Ismailia. Parties continued for weeks, and the celebration also marked the opening of Ismail's old Opera House in Cairo, which is now gone.
The
canal had a dramatic effect on world trade almost from the time it
was opened, and even on world politics. Now, it was much easier for
European nations to penetrate and colonize Africa.
Because of external debts, the British government purchased the
shares owned by Egyptian interests, namely those of Said Pasha, in
1875, for some 400,000 pounds sterling. Yet France continued to have
a majority interest. Under the terms of an international convention
signed in 1888 (The Convention of Constantinople), the canal was
opened to vessels of all nations without discrimination, in peace
and war. Nevertheless, Britain considered the canal vital to the
maintenance of its maritime power and colonial interests. Therefore,
the provisions of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 allowed Britain
to maintain a defensive force along the Suez Canal Zone. However,
Egyptian nationalists demanded repeatedly that
Britain evacuate the Suez Canal
Zone,
and in 1954 the two countries signed a seven-year agreement that
superseded the 1936 treaty and provided for the gradual withdrawal
of all British troops from the zone.
By June 1956, all British troops had departed and Egypt took over the British installations. Nevertheless, various conflicts caused the closure of the canal for intermittent periods. Unfortunately, between the Suez Crisis and later wars, the canal was damaged extensively and was not operated for several year after 1967. However, on June 5th, 1975, the canal was again opened, and since then has been updated and enlarged.
The canal stretches over 100 miles (163 kilometers) from
Port Said and the Mediterranean Sea to
Suez and the Red Sea and, along
with other such projects, changed the face of maritime world trade. The famous
canal (Translated from Arabic as Qana al-Suways) of the modern era is one
of the greatest engineering feats of modern
record. At its narrowest point, it is about 300 meters wide (197 feet)
at the bottom. It is wide enough to allow ships having a a maximum
draft of 16 meters (53 feet). The canal can
accommodate ships as large as 150,000 dead weight tons fully loaded.
The Canal is really not wide enough to allow two way passage of ships, but there are several passing bays, and areas where ships may pass each other in the Bitter Lakes and between Qantara and Ismailia. There is also a railway that runs the entire distance of the canal.
The Suez Canal has no locks, because the Mediterranean Sea and
the Gulf of Suez have roughly the same water level. Actually, the
canal does not stretch continuously from one sea to the other. It
really consists of two parts each flowing into the Bitter Lakes
which lies between
Port Said and
Suez,
and it also uses the waters of Lake Manzilah and Lake Timsah.
Three convoys transit the canal on a typical day, two southbound and one northbound. The first southbound convoy enters the canal in the early morning hours and proceeds to the Great Bitter Lake, where the ships anchor out of the fairway and await the passage of the northbound convoy. The northbound convoy passes the second southbound convoy, which moors to the canal bank in a by-pass, in the vicinity of El Qantara. Egypt's Suez Canal Authority (SCA) reported that in 2003 17,224 ships passed through the canal. The canal averages about 8% of the world shipping traffic. The passage takes between 11 and 16 hours at a speed of around 8 knots. The low speed helps prevent erosion of the canal banks by ship's wakes.
Improvements
are planned to allow supertanker passage though the canal by 2010.
Presently, supertankers can offload part of their cargo onto a
canal-owned boat and reload at the other end of the canal.
For tourists, the Canal Zone makes an interesting visit, though one need not, and really cannot traverse the whole of it except by ship. Outside of an ocean cruise, visiting the Canal is easiest at Suez. It can in fact be a very easy day tour, as Cairo is only about an hour and a half away. On the other hand, it could also be visited as part of a little longer tour, also taking in the Eastern Desert Monasteries and some other site seeing.
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Last Updated: 11/14/2006