Exact measurements in 1841 and 1847 by Linant Bey, the Government Water Engineer, Robert Stephenson (son of the inventor Robert Stephenson), the Austrian Alois von Negrelli and the Frenchman Bourdaloue finally disproved Lepbre's calculations, and in 1854 Lesseps submitted a carefully considered plan to the then Viceroy, Said, who formally granted permission to begin the work on January 5, 1856.
As a result of difficulties thrown in the way of the enterprise by the British Government and other obstacles there was some delay in raising the necessary capital, and work was begun only on April 25, 1859. Subsequently the Viceroy made more money available and provided 25,000 workmen, to be paid at modest rates and relieved every three months. Until the completion of the Ismailia Canal even the supply of water, which had to be transported on camels, was a considerable undertaking. From 1864 onwards, however, the number of native laborers was reduced, skilled European workers were brought in and increased use was made of modern machinery.
On March 18, 1869 the water of the Mediterranean was at last allowed to flow into the nearly dry, salt encrusted basins of the Bitter Lakes, the northern parts of which lay 25-40ft/8-12m below sea level; the southern parts required extensive dredging. The canal was finally opened with great pomp and circumstance on November 17, 1869.
The cost of constructing the canal, about $19 million, was raised by the issue of shares, most of which were held in the early years by the British, French and Egyptian Governments. Ownership of the canal, until its sudden nationalization by President Nasser in 1956 (instead of the previously planned date of 1968), was vested in the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez (Suez Canal Company).
The Suez Canal is now under exclusively Egyptian sovereignty and ownership. A declaration by the Egyptian Government in 1957 transferred to the State all the obligations of the old Suez Canal Company, which stemmed mainly from the Convention of Constantinople of 1888. This provided that the canal should be a neutral zone through which merchant ships and warships of all nations had the right of free passage both in peace and in war.
As a result of the war between Egypt and Israel the canal was blocked by wrecks from 1967 to 1975. The resultant lengthening of the route between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans led to the building of huge tankers and other vessels which were too large to pass through the canal after its reopening in 1975. It is hoped to counter the threatened reduction in the canal's importance to international sea traffic by widening and deepening operations during the 1980s.
The Suez Canal, which has no locks at any point in its course, has a total length of 106miles/171km including the piers projecting into the Mediterranean and the shallow Gulf of Suez. Its depth, originally 26ft/8m, is now 36-49ft/11-15m, its width 310-460ft/95-140m (on the bottom 150-260ft/45-80m). Ships pass through the canal in convoys of 20 or more. There are passing-places at intervals of 6mi/10km, and there is also room for two way traffic on Lake Timsah ("Crocodile Lake"), roughly half way along the canal, and in the Great and Little Bitter Lakes.
At the north end of the canal lies the important port of Port Said. At the south end is the attractively situated town of Suez, which suffered severe damage during the war with Israel, with the oil and industrial port of Port Tauf iq on the opposite bank of the canal.
About half way between Port Said and Suez, on the north side of Lake Timsah, is the town of Ismailia, built during the construction of the canal as the base and starting point of the whole huge operation.
There is no permanent bridge over the Suez Canal. The first regular link between the Delta and the Sinai Peninsula was provided by the opening of the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel, 7.5mi/12km north of Suez, at the end of 1980. A joint Egyptian and British enterprise, this is a road tunnel 1.75mi/2.8km long, passing under the canal at a depth of up to 167ft/51m, and which also carries water mains and power lines supplying the Sinai Peninsula. It is named after an Egyptian General killed in the October War with Israel in 1973. A further tunnel is under construction near Ismailia.
The area on both sides of the Suez Canal is to be developed over the next 20 years into one of Egypt's largest industrial zones. The towns of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez are all expected to have populations of over a million by the year 2000 Port Said and Suez as industrial and commercial cities of international standing, Ismailia as the cultural and administrative center of the region. The basis for this optimism is provided by the established and recently discovered new oilfields on both sides of the Gulf of Suez and the substantial deposits of phosphates, manganese, chromium, tin, wolfram and asbestos along the Red Sea coast.
Read More
Read Less
Read More
A large shipping passing through the Suez Canal.
