History of Building The Suez Canal Ferdinand De Lesseps

Historical Outline:

• Egypt was the first country to dig a man-made canal across its lands to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea via the branches of the River Nile. The first who dug it was Senausert III, Pharaoh of Egypt (1874 B.C.). This canal was abandoned to silting and reopened several times as follows:

- Canal of Sity I	1310	B.C.
- Canal of Nkhaw	610	B.C.
- Canal of Darius I	510	B.C.
- Canal of Ptolemy II	285	B.C.
- Canal of The Romans	117	A.C.
- Canal of Amir El-Moemeneen	640	A.D.

• The Suez Canal is actually the first canal that directly links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
• It was opened for navigation on the 17 ^th of November 1869.
• Egypt nationalized the canal on the 26 ^th of July 1956.
• The Canal was closed five times; the last time was the most serious one since it lasted for 8 years. The Canal was then reopened for navigation on the 5 ^th of June 1975. 

It is recorded that Egypt was the first country to dig a canal across its land with a view to activate world trade.
The Suez Canal is considered to be the shortest link between the east and the west due to its unique geographic location; it is an important international navigation canal linking between the Mediterranean sea at Port said and the red sea at Suez. The idea of linking the Mediterranean sea with the red sea by a canal dates back to 40 centuries as it was pointed out through history starting by the pharaohs era passing by the Islamic era until it was dredged reaching its current condition today.

It is considered to be the first artificial canal to be used in Travel and Trade. The Whole Idea of establishing a canal linking between the red sea and the Mediterranean dates back to the oldest times, as Egypt dredged the first artificial canal on the planet’s surface. The pharaohs dredged a canal link in between river Nile and the red sea.

In modern times the Suez Canal is actually the first canal directly linking the Mediterranean to the Red sea.

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.

In 1854 the French diplomat and engineer Vicomte Ferdinand Marie de Lessepssucceeded in enlisting the interest of the Egyptian viceroy Said Pasha in the project. 
In 1858 La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez (Universal Company of the Maritime Suez Canal) was formed with authority to cut a canal and to operate it for 99 years, after which ownership would return to the Egyptian government. The company was originally a private Egyptian concern, its stock owned chiefly by French and Egyptian interests. In 1875 the British government purchased Egypt's shares.

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 and the canal was opened for international navigation.

Completion of the 160- kilometer long waterway, however, took ten years of excruciating and poorly compensated labor by Egyptian workers, who were drafted at the rate of 20,000 every ten months from the ranks of the peasantry.

The canal remained under the control of two powers until Nasser nationalized it in 1956; it has since been operated by the Suez Canal Authority .

The canal was closed to navigation twice in the contemporary period. The first closure was brief, coming after the tripartite British-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956, an invasion primarily motivated by the nationalization of the waterway. The canal was reopened in 1957. The second closure occurred after the June 1967 War with Israel and lasted until 1975, when Egypt and Israel signed the second disengagement accord.

After July 1952 Revolution, president Gamal Abd El Naser publicized the canal in announcement in (26 July, 1956) making the management of the canal a 100% Egyptian, which enraged the major countries leading to the Triad assault on Egypt in (29 October, 1956) which caused to the closing of the canal and it was reopened in (march 1957).

http://www.suezcanal.gov.eg/reports.aspx