Suez Canal

File:Suezcanal.jpg

1881 drawing of the Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس, Qanā al-Suways), west of the Sinai Peninsula, is a 163-km-long (101 miles) and, at its narrowest point, 300-m-wide (984 ft) maritime canal in Egypt between Port Said (Būr Sa'īd) on the Mediterranean Sea, and Suez (al-Suways) on the Red Sea.

The canal allows two-way north to south water transport between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation of Africa. Before the opening of the canal in 1869, goods were sometimes transported by being offloaded from ships and carried overland between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

The canal comprises two parts, north and south of the Great Bitter Lake, linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea.

The ancient Suez Canal

Perhaps as early as the 12th Dynasty, Pharaoh Senusret III (1878 BC - 1839 BC) may have had a west-east canal dug through the Wadi Tumilat, joining the Nile with the Red Sea, for direct trade with Punt, and thus allowing trade indirectly between the Red Sea and Mediterranean. Evidence indicates its existence at least by the 13th century BC during the time of Ramesses II (see [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]). It later fell into disrepair, and according to the Histories of the Greek historian Herodotus, re-excavation was undertaken about 600 BC by Necho II; though Necho II never completed his project.

The canal was finally completed by King Darius I, the Persian conqueror of Egypt. Darius commemorated his achievement with a number of granite stelae that he set up on the Nile bank, including one near Kabret, 130 miles from Pie. The Darius Inscriptions read:

Saith King Darius: I am a Persian. Setting out from Persia, I conquered Egypt. I ordered this canal dug from the river called the Nile that flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. When the canal had been dug as I ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, even as I intended. [6]

It was again restored by Ptolemy II about 250 BC. Over the next 1000 years it was successively modified, destroyed and rebuilt, until finally being put out of commission in the eighth century by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur.

The modern Suez Canal

Construction of the canal

More than a thousand years elapsed before the next attempt was made to dig a canal. At the end of the 18th century, Napoleon Bonaparte, while in Egypt, contemplated the construction of a canal to join the Mediterranean and Red Seas. His project was abandoned, however, after a French survey erroneously concluded that the waters of the Red Sea were higher than those of the Mediterranean, making a lockless canal impossible.

In 1854 and 1856 Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained concessions from Said Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt, whom de Lesseps had, as a French diplomat, come to know in the 1830s. Said Pasha authorized the creation of a company for the purpose of constructing a maritime canal open to ships of all nations according to plans created by Austrian engineer Alois Negrelli. By way of a lease of the relevant land, the company was to operate the canal for 99 years from its opening to navigation. The Suez Canal Company (Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez) came into being on December 15 1858.

The excavation operations took nearly eleven years to accomplish, mostly through the forced labor of poor Egyptians. It is estimated that during the decade of work, over 1.5 million Egyptians were forced to work on the canal, 125,000 of whom perished due to malnutrition, fatigue and disease, especially cholera. Involuntary labor ceased on the project, however, after the Viceroy conceded to strong anti-slavery sentiment and condemnation by the British government that reached a climax during the American Civil War (It should be noted that the British had an ulterior motive, as the canal was an important trade route). Although numerous technical, political, and financial problems were overcome, the final cost was more than double the original estimate. The canal opened to traffic on November 17, 1869.

One of the first traverses in the 19th century.

The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade. Combined with the completion of the American Transcontinental Railroad six months earlier, the entire world could be circled in record time. It played an important role in increasing European penetration and colonization of Africa. External debts forced Said Pasha's successor, Isma'il Pasha, to sell his country's share in the canal for £400,000 to the United Kingdom in 1875. The Convention of Constantinople in 1888 declared the canal a neutral zone under the protection of the British; British troops had moved in to protect it during a civil war in Egypt in 1882. Under the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the United Kingdom insisted on retaining control over the canal. In 1951, Egypt repudiated the treaty, and by 1954 the United Kingdom had agreed to pull out.

After the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew their pledge to support the construction of the Aswan Dam because Egypt had sought weaponry from the Soviet Union, President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal. This caused Britain, France, and Israel to invade, in the week-long Suez Crisis of 1956. As a result of damage and sunken ships, the canal was closed until April 1957, when it had been cleared with UN assistance. A United Nations force (UNEF) was established to maintain the neutrality of the canal and the Sinai Peninsula.

After the Six Day War in 1967, the canal was closed until June 5, 1975. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the canal was the scene of a major crossing by the Egyptian army into Israeli-controlled Sinai; later, the Israeli army crossed the canal westward.

A multinational observer force (MFO), mostly consisting of U.S. Army troops, currently monitors the Sinai. After a U.N. mandate expired in 1979, negotiations began for a new observer force. In 1981, the MFO was stationed in the Sinai in coordination with a phased Israeli withdrawal. This force is not under United Nations auspices. It is there under agreements between the U.S., Israel, Egypt, and other participating nations. (Multinational Force and Observers)

Suez Canal Zone

Significant Dates in the history of the Suez Canal :

Suez Canal, seen from Earth orbit, courtesy NASA

• 25 Apr 1859: Canal construction begins
• 16 Nov 1869: The Suez Canal opens; operated and owned by Suez Canal Company(Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez)
• 25 Nov 1875: Britain becomes minority share holder of Suez Company, acquiring 44% of the Suez Canal Company. The rest of the shares are controlled by French syndicates
• 25 Aug 1882: British take control of the canal
• 14 Nov 1936: Suez Canal Zone established, under British control
• 13 Jun 1956: Suez Canal Zone restored to Egypt
• 26 Jul 1956: Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal
• 5 Nov 1956 - 22 Dec 1956: French, British, and Israeli forces occupy the Suez Canal Zone
• 22 Dec 1956: Restored to Egypt
• 5 Jun 1967 - 5 Jun 1975: Canal closed and blockaded by Egypt
• 10 Apr 1975: Canal reopened

Presidents of the Suez Canal Company:

• 1855 - 7 Dec 1894: Ferdinand Marie, vicomte de Lesseps
• 17 Dec 1892 - 17 Jul 1896: Jules Guichard (acting for de Lesseps to 7 Dec 1894)
• 3 Aug 1896 - 1913: Auguste Louis Albéric, prince d'Arenberg
• 19 May 1913 - 1927: Charles Jonnart
• 4 Apr 1927 - 1 Mar 1948: Louis de Vogüé
• 4 Apr 1948 - 26 Jul 1956: François Charles-Roux

British Vice-Counsuls in Port Suez:

• 1922 - 1924: G. E. A. C. Monck-Mason
• 1924 - 1925: G. C. Pierides (acting)
• 1925 - 1926: Thomas Cecil Rapp
• 1926 - 1927: Abbas Barry (acting)
• 1927 - 1931: E. H. L. Hadwen (acting to 1930)
• 1931 - 1934: A. N. Williamson-Napier
• 1934 - 1936: H. M. Eyres
• 1936 - 1940: D. J. M. Irving
• 1940 - 1941: R. G. Dundas

Consuls:

• 1941 - 1942: R. G. Dundas
• 1942 - 1944: H. G. Jakins
• 1944 - 1946: W. B. C. W. Forester
• 1946 - 1947: Frederick Herbert Gamble
• 1947 - 1948: E. M. M. Brett (acting)
• 1948 - 1954: C. H. Page
• 1954 - 1955: F. J. Pelly
• 1955 - 1956: J. A. D. Stewart-Robinson (acting)
• 1956: J. Y. Mulvenny

Governors of the Suez Canal Zone:

• 14 Nov 1936 - 24 Jul 1939: ?
• 24 Jul 1939 - 7 May 1941: Sir Archibald Wavell
• 7 May 1941 - 7 Aug 1942: Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck
• 7 Aug 1942 - 19 Feb 1943: Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander
• 19 Feb 1943 - 6 Jan 1944: Henry Maitland Wilson
• 6 Jan 1944 - Jun 1946: Sir Bernard Charles Tolver Paget
• Jun 1946 - Jun 1947: Miles Christopher Dempsey
• Jun 1947 - 25 Jul 1950: Sir John Tredinnick Crocker
• 25 Jul 1950 - Apr 1953: Sir Brian Hubert Robertson
• Apr 1953 - 28 Sep 1953: Sir Cameron Gordon Graham Nicholson
• 28 Sep 1953 - 13 Jun 1956: Sir Charles Frederic Keightley

Supreme Allied Commander:

• 5 Nov 1956 - 22 Dec 1956: Sir Charles Frederic Keightley (s.a.)

Present day

An American warship in the Suez Canal

The canal has no locks because there are no hills to climb. The canal allows the passage of ships of up to some 150,000 tons displacement, with cargo. It permits ships of up to 16 m (53 ft) draft to pass, and improvements are planned to increase this to 22 m (72 ft) by 2010 to allow supertanker passage. Presently, supertankers can offload part of their cargo onto a canal-owned boat and reload at the other end of the canal. There is one shipping lane with several passing areas. 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.

Since 1980 there has been a road tunnel (the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel) under the canal, and since 1999 a powerline has crossed it. A railway on the west bank runs parallel to the canal for its entire length.

Connections between the shores

For north to south:

• In El Qantara there is a high-level fixed road bridge. The Arabic al qantara means "the bridge". The Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, as it is known, has a 70 meter clearance over the canal and was built with assistance from the Japanese government.
• In 2001 the El Ferdan Railway Bridge 20 km north of Ismailia was completed: the longest swing span bridge in the world, with a span of 340 m (1100 ft). The previous bridge was destroyed in 1967 during the Arab-Israeli conflict.
• South of the Great Bitter Lake is the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel, built in 1983. Because of leakage problems, in the period 1992–1995 a new water-tight tunnel was built inside the old one.

Movie

A popular film, Suez was made in 1938 and starred Tyrone Power as de Lesseps and Loretta Young as a love interest. A sweeping epic, it is very loosely based on history.

See also

• Wikisource:Constantinople Convention of the Suez Canal
• Pharaoh (historical novel by Bolesław Prus, incorporating motifs of an ancient "Suez Canal")

Other canals

• Panama Canal (the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean)
• Kiel Canal (the North Sea and the Baltic Sea)

External links

• Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions
• Constantinople Convention of the Suez Canal, 1888
• El Ferdan railway bridge
• Encyclopedia of the Orient: Suez Canal
• Parting the Desert by Zachary Karabell
• Google Maps Satellite Photo of the Suez Canal