The most important artificial channel in , stretching from to . Located to the west of the Sinai Peninsula, it marks the border between the two continents. The length of the canal with approach sections reaches 170 km. This shipping channel is included in the version of our site.
The Suez Canal originates in Port Said and stretches to the bay of the same name in the Red Sea. Water transport can pass through it in both directions. Prior to the opening of this waterway, the transportation of goods between Africa and Eurasia was carried out only by land. The canal was opened for shipping in the second half of the 19th century.
According to historical facts, a canal was laid here during the 12th Dynasty of the Egyptian pharaohs in order to connect the Nile with the Red Sea. Many subsequent rulers completed the canal, and even the Persian king Darius I, who conquered Egypt. During the reign of Caliph Mansur, the canal was completely filled up. They thought about its restoration in the 16th century AD. during the time of the Ottoman Empire.
The reopening of the canal had an invaluable impact on world trade. During the First and Second World Wars, the Suez Canal was repeatedly invaded and partially destroyed. It is currently one of the main components of the Egyptian budget. Tariffs for the transport of goods through the canal increase every year.
Photo attraction: Suez Canal
The modern Suez Canal is a large water artery connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas. A number of other important projects are connected with this building. The Suez Canal, where the city of Ismailia is located, is connected by a separate branch to the Nile River.
In the area of the city of Suez, an automobile tunnel was laid, bearing the name of General Ahmed Hamdi. It lies under the bottom of the canal and provides road communication between Africa and Asia. Above the waterway there is a power line suspended on two pylons at a height of more than 200 meters.
Built across the canal in 2001, the bridge held the status of the largest cable-stayed bridge in the world for three years. In 2004, he ceded it to the Millau Viaduct in southern France.
The agreement to build the bridge was reached during President Mubarak's visit to Japan in 1995. The cable-stayed bridge was built with the support of the Japanese government, and the firm of this Asian country was the main contractor. The unofficial name of the building is the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge. It is built at a height of 70 meters, the length of its main span is 404 meters.
Today, the canal makes it possible to transport goods from Asia to the Mediterranean, bypassing Africa. Every year, income from its use brings Egypt several billion dollars. This is the second most important source of replenishment of the state budget of the North African country.
Construction history: to the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal had a predecessor built in antiquity. It is called the "Channel of the Pharaohs" or "Ancient Suez Canal". Aristotle, Pliny the Elder and Strabo attributed the idea of the canal to Pharaoh Sesostris. This is a collective image that united the Egyptian rulers of ancient times in the eyes of the Greeks and Romans. Under Sesostris, Ramesses II is sometimes assumed.
According to Herodotus, the construction of the canal began under Pharaoh Necho II (VI century BC). An ancient historian wrote that the length of the structure was four days' journey, and the width allowed two warships to sail side by side.
Necho II did not complete the canal. According to Herodotus, construction work killed 120,000 Egyptians. But the ruler refused to complete the construction after he heard from the oracle that the canal would bring more benefits to foreigners.
In the VI century BC. Egypt became part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. King Darius I decided to complete the connection of the Nile with the Red Sea. They found out that there was no water in the “old canal” dug under Necho. The king was able to mobilize the resources of his empire for its construction.
Darius I personally came to the opening of the canal. Along it stood three-meter steles with inscriptions in several languages. They reported that Darius ordered a canal to be dug so that sailing ships could go from Egypt to Persia, "as I wished."
Other authors doubted that the canal was completed under Darius I. They wrote that the canal continued to be completed under Ptolemy II (III century BC). The engineers of this king were able to come up with water locks that prevented the Nile from filling it with salt water.
In the last centuries of Antiquity, the building was known as the "River of Trajan" in honor of the great emperor of Rome of the 2nd century. In the 7th century, the canal was clogged with silt. The waterway was restored by order of the Arab commander Amr ibn al-As, who conquered Egypt, or the caliph Omar around 642 BC. In 767, by order of the Arab caliph al-Mansur, the canal was filled up so that supplies to his enemies would not go through it.
Around the year 1000, they tried to make the ditch navigable again, but the new channel quickly became clogged with sand. At the end of the 15th century, the Venetians proposed a plan to connect a canal to the Red Sea and the Nile in order to trade with India. But the plan was difficult to implement, and the conquest of Egypt by the Ottomans buried it completely.
During the Egyptian campaign in 1798, on the orders of Napoleon, excavations were carried out and the remains of an ancient canal were discovered. When Napoleon became emperor, there were attempts to revive the canal, but they were unsuccessful. The reason was that they did not take into account the depth of the Red Sea.
Birth of the Suez Canal
In the 1830s, a number of European engineers put forward their own plans for the revival of the Suez Canal. In 1854, the Turkish Khedive of Egypt, Seid Pasha, granted the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps a concession. It envisaged the creation of a company for the construction of a canal open to ships of all countries.
The company was opened in December 1858, and in April 1859 began work. The construction of the canal took ten years. To do this, the Suez Canal Company used Egyptian forced labor. In total, about 1.5 million citizens of different countries were involved in its construction. Several thousand workers died from disease.
The creation of the waterway did not suit the UK, and she took steps to slow down the project. The British publicized cases of the use of "slave labor" and forced them to refuse to involve local peasants in the work.
The official opening of the Suez Canal took place on November 17, 1869. The discovery was made by Ismail, the new Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. The ceremony was attended by Empress Eugenie, wife of Emperor Napoleon III of France.
The first channel was to be crossed by the French yacht Aigle. But on the night before the opening of the waterway, the English captain George Nares led his Newport ship past the ships of other countries. So the British were the first. Nares received an official reprimand from his government and an unofficial verbal thanks.
All work was completed only by 1871, and at first few ships sailed along the canal. Most of the shares in the Suez Canal Company were owned by France. The debts forced Ismail Pasha to sell Turkey's share to French shareholders.
In 1882, British troops invaded Egypt and Britain managed to gain control of the Suez Canal. The Convention of Constantinople declared him neutral under a British protectorate. Control over it was useful to the British during both world wars. In 1956, Great Britain withdrew its troops from Egypt, and the Suez Canal came under the control of this country.
The Suez Canal is an artificial sea route in Egypt that separates Eurasia from Africa. For almost 150 years, it has been used for the shortest transportation of goods from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.
It is very easy to find the Suez Canal on the map. It connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. On one side of the Suez Canal is the port city of Port Said (on the Mediterranean coast), and on the other - Suez (on the Red Sea coast). It "cuts" the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Suez.
Since 1956, the Suez Canal has been wholly owned by Egypt. Prior to that, it was owned by the General Organization of the Suez Canal, owned by France and England.
Dimensions
In different sources you can find different information about the length, width and depth of the Suez Canal. According to the latest data, its length, including the approach sections and the track, is approximately 193 kilometers. Throughout its length, the Suez Canal has an unequal width and depth. According to official information, at a depth of 11 meters, the width is 205-225 meters. In 2010, the maximum depth was 24 meters.
Price per pass
The rules and price of sailing are determined by Egypt. Its budget largely depends on the Suez Canal, because every year the profit from the use of this waterway is about five billion dollars. The passage through the Suez Canal is the most preferable for ship owners, since when using an alternative route that goes around Africa, the distance increases by 8 thousand kilometers, respectively, there is a large loss of time. In addition, there is a chance to run into Somali pirates. The cost of passage through the canal depends on the weight of the cargo, the draft of the vessel, the height of the cargo on the deck, the date of application and other factors, and is 8-12 dollars per ton. The total cost of passing a ship with a large load can reach a million dollars.
The role of the channel in the life of Egypt
The Suez Canal is of great importance for the global cargo transportation market. About 20% of all transported oil is transported through it and about 10% of all world trade cargo transportation is carried out. In addition, tourists from all over the world come to see and take photos of the Suez Canal, which also helps to increase the budget of Egypt.
Modernization of the Suez Canal
After the Suez Canal began to belong to Egypt, the government began to consider its expansion as one of its main tasks, because its original depth was 8 meters and its width was 21 meters.
Now the government plans to create a new channel, which will run next to the main one. Its length will be 72 kilometers. This will allow you to extract even more profit due to the increase in the throughput of the channel. The expansion should reduce the waiting time to pass the track to three hours (now it is 11 hours) and triple the number of ships simultaneously passing through the canal. In addition, there will be a huge number of new jobs. The expansion is planned to spend several billion dollars.
workarounds
Due to the high cost of passage, transport ship owners are looking for alternative ways to transport goods. The Israeli government offered to build a bypass route through its territory. This is the so-called “shunting” of the channel. However, this route cannot be made completely by water, so there are plans to build a railway line between the city of Eilat and the Mediterranean coast.
Rosatomflot has also proposed replacing the Suez Canal. Presumably, the Northern Sea Route, which connects Europe with Asia, can be used as a replacement. Due to the melting of the Arctic ice, this route has been open for a longer time and, perhaps, in the near future, it will be possible to transport goods through Russia.
Construction history
The idea of laying the shortest route to the waters of the Red Sea visited the inhabitants of Egypt many centuries ago. The first attempts were made by the Theban pharaohs during the era of the Middle Kingdom. They wanted to connect the Red Sea with one of the tributaries of the Nile.
The history of the creation of the canal itself began at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 6th century BC. Evidence of Herodotus was found, which says that Pharaoh Necho II began the construction, but Darius I built the canal to the end a century later. After that, things didn't go very well. The reconstruction of the path took place in the III century BC under the leadership of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The canal was deepened several centuries later by order of Emperor Trajan, during his reign in Africa. In the VIII century (during the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs), despite the fact that this transport route was actively used, it was covered up.
In 1854, French businessman Ferdinand de Lesseps decides to reopen the history of the Suez Canal. Since at that moment France had a lot of influence in Egypt, he was allowed to start this process. Construction work started in 1859, the canal was opened 10 years later. A large number of Egyptians were involved in forced labor, many people died from hard labor, dehydration and disease.
As a result of the construction, the country's economy was seriously affected, which forced Ismail Pasha to sell his part of the shares of the World Organization of the Suez Canal to the British. In 1882, a British military base was located in this place.
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Is 8,000 km a lot? And for commercial transportation, where each kilometer costs a certain amount? In this matter, all the secret of the Suez Canal. One of the most famous buildings in the world deserves close attention. 160 km avoid 8,000 km of travel along the coast of Africa. 86 nautical miles - and you get from the Mediterranean to the Red. From Europe to Asia.
Not bad? What would be their fate if they had this short cut to rich India? What would Christopher Columbus do? Oddly enough, but the Genoese had a chance to go to the coveted land of spices through the Arabian Isthmus. And despite the fact that the canal was opened only 145 years ago - in 1869, the history of the idea is much older and more interesting!
The birth of an idea
The ancient Egyptians quickly felt all the advantages of the geographical location of their country. The state that arose on the banks of the Nile could trade with Mesopotamia, Greece, African and Asian countries with equal success. But there were also serious obstacles - the Arabian Desert, for example. Its boundless sands separated the Nile, convenient for navigation, from the Red Sea. The people who built the pyramid of Cheops and the Karnak complex simply had to think about building convenient shipping routes. Thus, during the reign of Pharaoh Merenre I (2285 - 2279 BC), channels were dug around the rapids of the Nile to facilitate the delivery of granite from Nubia.
The most interesting for you!
Speed is no longer needed
Pharaoh Senusret III undertook the construction of a full-fledged canal. However, due to the fact that all the above events took place around 1800 BC, it is impossible to say with complete certainty whether the ambitious ruler succeeded in bringing his plan to life. According to some reports, Senusret cut a channel 78 meters long and 10 wide in granite rocks to facilitate navigation on the Nile.
Of course, given the level of technology, this is also solid. But the modern Suez Canal is an unattainable height. Some sources (Pliny the Elder, for example) claim that Senurset's plans were much grander - to dig a 62.5-mile (about 100 km) shipping channel between the Nile and the Red Sea. He did not do this, most likely because the court engineers could not draw up a normal plan.
According to their calculations, the water level in the Red Sea was higher than the Nile, and the canal would "spoil" the water in the river. For obvious reasons, the ancient builders could not use the locks. Later, the brilliant Fourier proved the fallacy of the Egyptians' calculations, and later, in practice, the builders of the Suez Canal confirmed it.
Suez Canal: forerunners
Only a thousand years later, Pharaoh Necho II (c. 600 BC) tried not only to repeat his predecessors, but also to surpass them! Unfortunately, detailed information about the Necho Canal has not been preserved, but it is known that the journey through it took 4 days. This path passed near the cities of Bubastis and Patum. The channel was tortuous, because in front of the Red Sea it was necessary to bypass the rocks. 120,000 Egyptians died during the construction (according to ancient authors, but this may be an exaggeration). Alas, the work was never completed - the priests prophesied an unenviable fate for the canal and the pharaoh did not tempt fate and oppose the will of the gods.
Why did the Egyptians with such persistence tried to realize such a large-scale idea? In the 19th century, this is obvious - the Suez Canal is needed to immediately enter the Indian Ocean, and not go around Africa. But the Egyptians hardly even went out into the Arabian Sea. Yes, and life in the desert accustomed them to land campaigns and expeditions. What is the reason? It's all about expansionist politics. Contrary to popular belief, ancient Egypt did not only build pyramids and worship cats. The Egyptians were skilled merchants, good warriors and careful diplomats. And the territories of modern Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia were the source of the most valuable goods: myrrh, valuable wood, precious metals, aromatic resins, incense, ivory. There were also completely exotic “goods”: Pharaoh Isesi, for example, rewarded his treasurer Burdida for bringing a dwarf to the ruler from Punt.
The Egyptian rulers used the entire arsenal of means - trade, troops, diplomacy. But why not the land route? Why just kill 120,000 subjects and spend a lot of money? The thing is that from ancient times to the present day, inclusive, sea transport remains the cheapest. Maximum autonomy, carrying capacity, speed - it's all about ships, not caravan routes. The Egyptians understood this and the ideas of canals like the Suez were constantly visited by pharaohs and scientists. But the priests broke all the plans of the ambitious pharaoh. This project was completed, but by a completely different ruler - Darius I.
Persians, Greeks and Arabs
A hundred years after Pharaoh Necho II, it was Darius who completed the construction of the canal, attributing to himself, however, a little more perfect: “I ordered this canal to be dug from the river, which is called the Nile and flows in Egypt, to the sea, which begins in Persia. […] this canal was dug because […] the ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I intended.” In fact, the Persian king only cleared the path already built by the Egyptians of silt and paved the rest of the waterway - this is how the “grandfather” of the Suez Canal arose.
But even here, not everything is so clear-cut. The historian Strabo gives slightly different data: “The canal was dug by Sesostris [aka Senusret, 1800 BC. e.] originally before the Trojan War; some, however, argue that this is the work of the son of Psammitichus [this son was the same Necho II], who only began work and then died; later it was taken over by Darius I, who inherited the production of the works. But under the influence of a false idea, he abandoned the almost finished work, for he was convinced that the Red Sea lies above Egypt, and if the entire intermediate isthmus was dug, then Egypt would be flooded by the sea. Nevertheless, the kings of the Ptolemaic family dug out the isthmus and made the strait a lockable passage, so that one could sail freely into the Outer Sea and return back at will.
This ancient author claims that Darius never completed the canal. Alas, ancient history is replete with such inconsistencies and it is hardly possible to point to an unambiguously correct option. However, the participation of Ptolemy II (285 - 246 BC) in the construction of the canal is not in doubt. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the canal was so wide that two triremes could pass freely there (the width of such a ship is about 5 m), and these are solid numbers even for a modern structure. It was this ruler who completed the construction of the famous Faros lighthouse (one of the 7 wonders of the world), and in general allocated a lot of funds for the economic development of the country. In millennia, Egypt will become the birthplace of a new Wonder of the World - the Suez Canal.
After Ptolemy, the canal went to the Romans along with Egypt. Its next large-scale restoration was organized by Emperor Trajan. Later this path was abandoned and used only occasionally for local purposes.
The Arab rulers again truly appreciated the possibilities of the channel. Amr ibn al-As created, thanks to the canal, an excellent route for supplying Egypt with food and raw materials. The trading function of the channel has changed in favor of infrastructure.
But in the end, Caliph Al-Mansur closed the canal in 775 due to political and military considerations. The canal, without proper maintenance, fell into disrepair and only some parts of it were filled with water during the annual floods of the Nile.
Napoleon. Where without him!
Only a thousand years later, during the stay of Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt, they started talking about the project again. The ambitious Corsican decided to restore the canal, because in the future he wanted to get an outpost between Britain and its colonies in India, and it was a sin to miss such an element of infrastructure. The Suez Canal, its image, the idea - all this was invisibly in the air. But who could implement this technologically and economically colossal idea?
Landing in Egypt in 1798, Bonaparte was able to easily defeat the Egyptian troops. Not expecting serious opposition from the Turks, he began to plan the arrangement of the future colony. But the Ottoman Empire did not want to see a corps of 30,000 French in its south, so it turned to Great Britain for help. The mistress of the seas for a long time did not want the strengthening of France, especially if this threatened her colonial interests. The brilliant Nelson managed to defeat the French at Aboukir.
Having lost the support of the fleet in the Mediterranean, Napoleon found himself in a trap and he was no longer up to the canal. It was necessary to save the soldiers and save yourself. Meanwhile, the engineer Leper, whom Bonaparte brought from France, was drafting a canal. But he was ready only in 1800 - Napoleon was already in France, refusing to conquer Egypt. Leper's decisions cannot be called successful, because his project was partly based on the old path laid by Darius and Ptolemy. In addition, the canal would be unsuitable for the passage of vessels with a large draft, and this greatly affected the prospect of such a "shortcut" from Europe to Asia.
First steps towards the Suez Canal
In 1830, Francis Chesney, a British officer, in the London Parliament proposed the idea of building a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. He argued that the implementation of such a project would greatly simplify the British way to India. But no one listened to Chesney, since by that time the British were busy establishing land transport infrastructure on the isthmus. Of course, now such a scheme seems senseless to us, because of the difficulty and inefficiency of such an approach.
Judge for yourself - a yacht or a ship that arrived, for example, from Toulon, disembarked passengers in Alexandria, where they partly by land, partly along the Nile got to Cairo, and then through the Arabian Desert to the Red Sea, where they again took places on another ship, which went to Bombay. Tiring, isn't it? And if you calculate the cost of such a route for the transportation of goods? However, Chesney's project was rejected, especially since in 1859 a direct railway across the isthmus was completed. Where is there some kind of Suez Canal!
In 1833, the French utopian Saint-Simonist movement became keenly interested in the idea of a canal. Several enthusiasts developed a construction plan, but Muhammad Ali Pasha (the ruler of Egypt) was not inclined to support such projects: at sea, Egypt had not yet recovered from the consequences of the Battle of Navarino, and on land it was necessary to fight the Turks. The time for the idea has not yet come.
Ferdinand was born in 1805 in the family of a diplomat, which, in fact, predetermined his career. At 20, he was appointed attaché at the French Embassy in Lisbon, where his uncle worked. At this time, he often travels to Spain and visits his great-niece Eugenia. Her loyalty to Uncle Ferdinand will still play its part. A little later, not without the help of his father, he got a place in the French diplomatic corps in Tunisia. And in 1832 he was sent to Alexandria, to the post of vice-consul. This is where the Suez Canal begins its history.
While still in France, de Lesseps got acquainted with the works of the Saint-Simonists and entered their circle. In Egypt, he was in close contact with Barthelemy Enfantin, head of the Saint-Simonist sect. Naturally, the ideas of reforming Egypt and large-scale construction projects could not help visiting the rather radical Enfantin. Moreover, at the same time, Muhammad Ali began to carry out pro-European reforms. Barthelemy was apparently sharing his thoughts with the young vice-consul. It is quite possible that he does this not only out of pure interest, but also because de Lesseps is successfully advancing in his service - in 1835 he was appointed consul general in Alexandria.
At the same time, another remarkable fact will occur, which will largely decide the fate of the channel: Muhammad Ali will offer de Lesseps to take care of the education of his son, Muhammad Said. Until 1837, Ferdinand worked in Alexandria, formally as a consul, and de facto also as a tutor.
For five years in Egypt, Lesseps acquired connections among Egyptian officials and was well versed in local politics. Later, the Frenchman was sent to the Netherlands, and even later - to Spain. In 1849, Ferdinand was part of the French diplomatic corps in Rome, where issues related to the Italian uprising were resolved. The negotiations failed, and de Lesseps was made a scapegoat and dismissed.
The former diplomat lived quietly on his estate, and in his spare time he worked with materials that he had collected during his stay in Egypt. He especially liked the idea of building a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. Ferdinand even sent the canal project (calling it the "Canal of the Two Seas") to Abbas Pasha, the ruler of Egypt, for consideration. But alas, no response was received.
Two years later, in 1854, Muhammad Said ascended the Egyptian throne. As soon as de Lesseps found out about this, he immediately sent congratulations to his former student. He, in response, invited the former consul to Egypt, and on November 7, 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps was in Alexandria. In his travel bag, he kept the project of the "Channel of the Two Seas", hoping to show it to Said. The time for an idea has come.
Grand schemer
In literature, de Lesseps is often called an adventurer and a cunning businessman. True, this is connected more with the construction of the Panama Canal, but it was also noted in the Suez project. The fact is that on November 30, 1854, Said Pasha signed a concession agreement on the construction of the canal (amended in 1856). The terms of the agreement proposed by Ferdinand were extremely unfavorable for Egypt. That is why he deserved comparison with the unforgettable Ostap Bender. But if you look at the situation from the point of view of the middle of the 19th century, everything falls into place. Europeans perceived Asian and African countries exclusively as colonies - already established or potential. De Lesseps was a diligent student and followed the European political paradigm. It is hardly appropriate to speak of injustice if it did not exist as such.
But what was in that agreement? What did Said Pasha miscalculate?
- All the land needed for construction became the property of the company.
- All equipment and materials that were imported from abroad for construction were not subject to duties.
- Egypt pledged to provide 80% of the necessary labor force.
- The company had the right to choose raw materials from state mines and quarries, to take all the necessary transport and equipment.
- The company received the right to own the channel for 99 years.
- The Egyptian government will receive from the company annually 15% of net income, 75% goes to the company, 10% to the founders.
Profitable? As for a colony - quite, but no more. Perhaps Said Pasha was simply not a good ruler. He also pursued a reformist policy, but he lacked his father's foresight. As a result, he gave the most valuable canal into the hands of European colonists.
Suez Canal, to the start, attention ... march!
The final draft of the Suez Canal with all the necessary drawings and calculations was provided in 1856. Only two years later, on December 15, 1858, the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was founded. Before proceeding with the direct construction of the canal, the company had to receive financial support - for this, Ferdinand began to issue shares.
In total, he issued 400,000 securities that had to be sold to someone. Lesseps first tried to attract the British, but got nothing but ridicule and a ban on the sale of shares in the Suez Canal Company. The conservatism of the British this time played against them. By relying on the railroad across the Arabian Isthmus, they missed a wonderful shipping route. In Austria and Prussia, the idea also did not become popular.
But in their native France, the shares went with a bang - the middle class was actively buying papers at 500 francs apiece, hoping to receive good dividends in the future. 44% of the shares were bought by Said Pasha, and another 24,000 were sold to the Russian Empire. As a result, the company's fund amounted to 200,000 francs (approximate exchange rate: 1 franc 1858 = 15 US dollars 2011). On April 25, 1859, construction work began on the site of the future Port Said.
The construction of the Suez Canal lasted ten years. There is no precise estimate of the number of workers involved. According to various sources, the canal was built by 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 people. Of these, several tens of thousands (or hundreds, no one counted) died. The main reason for this was overwork and terrible unsanitary conditions. What can we talk about if a normal canal to provide construction sites with fresh water was built only in 1863! Prior to this, 1600 camels delivered water in regular "flights".
Interestingly, the UK actively opposed the use of, in fact, forced labor on the Suez Canal. But do not be deceived by the politicians of Foggy Albion - they were not led by philanthropy. After all, the British did not disdain to use the Egyptians in the same way when laying their railway (Lesseps wrote about this indignantly in a letter to the British government). It was all about economic interests - the Suez Canal seriously facilitated navigation between Europe and India, the richest colony of the British. That is why London constantly put pressure on the Turkish Sultan and France, preventing the company from working quietly. It got to the point that the Bedouins hired by the British tried to raise an uprising among the builders of the canal! The Turks and the French did not want to quarrel with Britain, since quite recently they fought together against Russia and they did not want to lose such a powerful ally.
Said Pasha died in 1863, Ismail Pasha ascended the Egyptian throne. The new ruler wanted to revise the concession agreement and construction almost stopped. A serious threat hung over the Suez Canal. But Ferdinand de Lesseps was a diplomat, if not a brilliant one. And what is a diplomat without an ace up his sleeve? Ferdinand turns to Napoleon III, though not directly, but through his niece Eugene, the wife of the French emperor. The arbitration court under the leadership of Napoleon revised the terms of the agreement and returned the lands that had passed to the company to the Egyptian state. In addition, tax benefits and the company's right to involve peasants in construction were cancelled. But here, too, the company benefited - as compensation for changing the terms of the agreement, Egypt paid the company 3.326 million Egyptian pounds in 1866 and 1.2 million in 1869. But most importantly, the Suez Canal has begun to be built! The ideological inspirer Lesseps himself participated in the opening - on April 25, 1859, the project got off the ground.
16 km/year
Lesseps planned to build the canal in 6 years, but the work was enough for all 10. Due to the lack of technical means, the work progressed quite slowly. The manual labor of unskilled workers in the desert is not the best way to build giant canals. But I had to be content with what I had. At the final stage, excavators were used, which significantly accelerated the work.
Lesseps mentioned that in one month sixty such machines extracted 2 million m3 of earth. In total, according to the estimates of the Administration of the Suez Canal, the volume of earthworks was about 75 million m3 of land. Why is there such a discrepancy in the data? It is easy to calculate that if earth-moving machines worked on the Suez Canal for all 10 years, then 240 million m3 could be extracted. The fact is that the company got really modern technical equipment only at the end of construction.
The Suez Canal began at the Mediterranean Sea, then in a straight line to Lake Timsakh and the dried-up Bitter Lakes. From there, the final stretch went to the Red Sea, to the city of Suez. Interestingly, Port Said was founded as a builders' settlement in 1859. Now it is a large city with half a million inhabitants, which plays an important role in servicing the Suez Canal.
In 1869 the work was completed. The Suez Canal was about to open. It really was a technological breakthrough - the length of the new canal was 164 km, the width was 60-110 m along the water table and 22 m along the bottom, the depth was 8 m. There were no locks, which greatly simplified the construction. Despite the fact that the canal was formally built, the permanent work on deepening and widening, by and large, never stopped - the canal was not adapted for large ships. Often, in order to pass each other, one of the ships moored at a special pier (they were built every 10 km) and let the other pass.
But these are all particulars. The main thing is that Lesseps and his company proved that it is possible to build a canal through the Arabian Isthmus. Ismail Pasha arranged grand celebrations in honor of the opening of the Suez Canal - more than 20 million francs were spent (these immoderate spending, by the way, hit the country's budget hard)! The highlight of the program was to be the opera Aida ordered from Verdi, but the composer did not have time to write it, so the guests were “satisfied” with a luxurious ball.
Among the guests were representatives of royal families from Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands, Lesseps's beloved niece Eugene. Russia was represented by the ambassador and famous marine painter Aivazovsky. On November 16, 1869, festivities were planned, and on November 17, the Suez Canal was opened!
The Suez Canal is more important every year
In 1869, the famous clipper ship Cutty Sark was launched on the River Clyde. Ironically, in the same year, the Suez Canal, the "killer" of high-speed clippers, was opened. Now there was no need for these swift beauties - squat cargo steamers managed to carry more cargo in the same time thanks to the creation of Lesseps.
But the Suez Canal is not only poetry, but also politics. Soon after the first flights, the British realized what a tasty morsel they had missed. Probably, the proud sons of Albion would have remained with a nose, if not for the lack of elementary skills of a financier from Ismail Pasha. The love for the exorbitant luxury of the ruler in everything (remember that same celebration in Port Said) seriously shook Egypt's financial position. In 1875, all 44% of the shares owned by Ismail Pasha (they passed to him from Said, his predecessor) were bought by Great Britain for 4 million pounds sterling (if this amount is converted into a 2013 pound, we get 85.9 million pounds). The company became, in fact, a Franco-British enterprise.
The significance of the Suez Canal is very clearly illustrated by the example of the 1888 agreement. Then the nine great states of Europe (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Turkey, France, Spain, Italy) signed a convention to ensure free navigation through the canal. The channel was open to all commercial and military vessels at any time. It was forbidden to block the canal or conduct military operations in it. If in a war where there are no rules, the inviolability of this highway was so respected, one can imagine what an important role he played.
With each subsequent year, the load on the Suez Canal was constantly increasing, it was the most important element of the infrastructure, which made it possible to get from the Mediterranean Sea to Asia in a couple of weeks. The Egyptians were removed from the control of the canal, all key positions were occupied by the French and the British. Of course, this situation hit hard on the sense of national identity of the Egyptians. But this resulted in an open conflict only in the middle of the twentieth century.
Before World War II (in 1936), the British won the right to keep troops at the canal to protect it. During the war, the allies lay down with bones, but held the defense at El Alamein, trying not to let Rommel go to the Suez Canal. It was indeed a strategic facility that covered Middle Eastern oil and Asia. But after the war, the meaning of the channel changed dramatically. Colonial empires faded into oblivion, but oil exports increased many times over. In addition, the atmosphere in the Arab world began to heat up in connection with the proclamation of the Israeli state.
In 1956, a British-French landing occupied Port Said. At the same time, the Israeli army was advancing from the north on Egypt. The reason for the invasion of European troops was an attempt by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (hero of the anti-monarchist revolution of 1952) to nationalize the Suez Canal. Despite heavy losses and temporary blocking of the canal (1956-1957), Nasser achieved his goal and the canal became a strategically important object of the Egyptian economy.
After the Six Day War in 1967, the canal was closed for 8 years. In 1975, the operation to clear and mine the Suez Canal was carried out by the forces of the US Navy and the USSR. The downtime of the canal was a heavy blow to the economy. And Egypt was able to survive it only thanks to the help of other Arab states.
For 8 years (1967-1975) in the Great Bitter Lake (through which the Suez Canal passes) 14 ships were locked up: they did not have time to leave the canal before its blockade. They were called the "Yellow Flotilla", as they say - because of the sand that covered the decks.
This structure is an artificial navigable canal, opened for the movement of ships in 1869. The Suez Canal is located on the territory of Egypt and serves as a watershed between Eurasia and the African continent, is of great strategic and economic importance. The income from its operation is one of the primary items in the Egyptian economy, comparable to financial receipts from tourism.
According to the manager, in 2011 alone, the transit through it amounted to more than 17 thousand ships, replenishing the Egyptian treasury in the amount of $5 billion.
Construction of the Suez Canal
Suez Canal on the map (clickable)
The history of construction is rooted in the distant past. The idea of a waterway through the Isthmus of Suez has haunted people since ancient times. According to the manuscripts of ancient historians, the canal connecting the right arm of the Nile and the Red Sea was sought to be dug by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs in the era of the Middle Kingdom (II millennium BC).
At the end of the 15th century, Venetian merchants also considered the possibility of laying a canal from the Mediterranean coast towards the Gulf of Suez, but their plans were not destined to come true.
The problem of the lack of a short sea route from Europe to the Indian Ocean was especially acute in the second half of the 19th century. Mankind in that era was going through a period of large-scale colonial division. The territory of North Africa, the closest part of the continent to Europe, was a tasty morsel for the leading colonial powers of that time - England, France, Germany and Italy. Egypt was the object of rivalry between Great Britain and France.
At the same time, the main opponent of the construction was Britain. At that time, she was the owner of the most powerful fleet. Under her control was the sea route to India, which lay through the southernmost point of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. After the opening of the canal, the ships of France, Germany, Spain, Holland and other states, which were serious competitors of England in its maritime trade, would go through it.
Construction of the Suez Canal (clickable)
Nevertheless, the historic day has come. On April 25, 1859, the main lobbyist (in modern terms) for the construction of the French lawyer and diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps personally, with a pick in his hands, laid the foundation for a great construction site.
Over time, advanced technologies of the time, dredgers and excavators were used to speed up construction. In general, the construction of the Suez Canal took 10 years and cost the lives of 120,000 workers. In total, up to one and a half million people took part in the work.
As a result, 75 million cubic meters of earth were excavated. The length of the Suez Canal was 163 km, the width was 60 meters, and the depth was 8, which was more than enough for the unhindered passage of ships.
During construction, along the banks of the future structure, many working settlements have grown, some of them eventually grew into large cities: Port Said, Port Fuad, Suez and Ismailia. Nowadays, most of their adult population is involved in its maintenance.
Suez Canal: photo from space (clickable)
On November 17, 1869, the grand opening of the Suez Canal took place. The timing of the movement of ships from Europe to India has been significantly reduced. At first, for its passage, the ships needed about 36 hours, but after a short time, from March 1887, the situation changed. Ships that were equipped with electric searchlights were also allowed to navigate at night, which cut the passage time in half. In 1870 through Suez Canal 486 cargo and passenger ships passed through.
It should be noted that the well-known Statue of Liberty, which is a symbol of the United States, was first planned to be installed in Port Said, and it was supposed to be called "Light of Asia". However, the Egyptian leadership decided that the transportation of the statue from France and its subsequent installation was too costly.
Second Suez Canal
The construction of the second stage of the Suez Canal began quite recently, in August 2014, and already on July 25, 2015, its trial operation took place. The construction of a parallel branch was caused by the fact that to ensure uninterrupted two-way traffic of ships in both directions. The length of the new one was 72 kilometers.
The solemn ceremony on the occasion of its opening took place on August 6, 2015. The President of Egypt arrived at the site of the procedure aboard the Al-Mahrusa yacht, the same that became known as the ship that first passed through the old Suez Canal in 1869.
Suez Canal video
