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The idea of linking the
Mediterranean and Red sea first occurred during the
Pharaohs age. Pharaohs were pioneers in this sphere They
dug a canal linking both seas through the eastern branch of
the Nile Delta. Later the canal was neglected until the
Greeks, followed by the Romans dug it several times but it
was again neglected. The canal was dug once again at the time
of the Arab conquest of Egypt. It continued to exist for a
number scores of years but was later filled up.
During the French campaign of
1798,
Napoleon Bonaparte thought of linking the two seas directly
by means of a navigation canal, but engineers did not
support the idea of believing that the Red Sea level is nine
meters higher than that of the Mediterranean.
· On
November 30,1854
the French engineer Ferdinand De-lesseps managed to sign a
concession with the Egyptian government to dig the Suez
Canal.
·
On April
25,1859
the digging of the Canal began and continued for ten years.
More than 2.4
million Egyptian workers took part, of which more than
125.000
lost their lives.
·
On November
17,1869
the Suez Canal was opened for navigation.
·
The Suez
Canal has a strategic location. It links two oceans and two
seas the Atlantic and Mediterranean via Gibraltar to Port
Said, and the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea via Bab Al Mandab
and the Gulf of Suez to the port of Suez.
It is the longest Canal that has no locks, it can be widened
and deepened at any time when necessary.
·
In July
1956,
Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal after it had been an
international company for about
87
years.
·
The Suez
Canal's strategic importance lies in the fact that it is
essential for world trade. It transports
14% of the total world trade, 26%
of oil exports, 41% of the total volume of goods and cargo that reach Arab Gulf ports.
·
The
Egyptian government has always been keen on improving and
developing the performance of the Suez Canal in order to
cope with the steady increase in maritime transport due to
the huge capacity of tankers, giant cargo vessels and the
ever increasing number of ships crossing the canal.
·
The Suez
Canal can accommodate huge vessels of
500
meters long, 70
meters wide and a draught of
70 feet. The present capacity of the Suez Canal has reached more than
25.000
vessels annually. |
