Definition of Suez Canal

The Suez Canal connects two seas that are at the same level: the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

This great work of the engineering It was built almost 150 years ago, as it was inaugurated in 1869. The Suez Canal runs for almost 200 km along the Suez Isthmus located in northeast Egypt.

Data of interest

Like the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal is a connection of great strategic value, since it connects Europe and Asia without having to travel the entire coast of the continent African.

For your building excavations were necessary in the sands of the desert. Nowadays, all kinds of boats cross it, from pleasure yachts to supertankers with a size greater than 500 meters in length.

In 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte promoted the draft of a channel to control the Commerce and weaken the British hegemony, but a difference of 9 meters between the level of the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea caused that the project had to be suspended.

Its construction lasted approximately 10 years and it is estimated that 120,000 workers died during this period.

In 2015 the canal was expanded and this has allowed two navigation lanes to be used and larger ships to cross its waters.

Currently 7% of International Trade It is done through the Suez Canal.

A project that took more than 2000 years to come true

Before the construction of the Suez Canal, the most direct route from Europe to the Middle East was by boat through the Mediterranean and later by land across the Suez Isthmus. Thus, it was necessary to cross the desert for a long time and with long caravans that made it difficult to transport. In this sense, since ancient times there was already the concern to build an artificial channel that would allow navigation.

In fact, in ancient Egypt a small canal was built for the internal trade, but the sands of the desert cut off this route in the 7th century BC. C. There were new attempts, but all of them failed and the trade developed exclusively by land.

This circumstance held back international trade for centuries. From 1850 the countries of Western Europe raised the need to build a canal that would allow a fluid and fast trade. Thus, in 1854 the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps was commissioned to build a canal across the Isthmus of Suez.

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