Encyclopedia
The
Suez Canal , west of the
Sinai Peninsula, is a 163-km-long and, at its narrowest point, 300-m-wide
maritime canal in
Egypt between
Port Said on the
Mediterranean Sea, and
Suez 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 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 . 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. According to
Herodotus, the completed canal was wide enough such that two
triremes could pass each other with oars extended, and that the length of the canal was a voyage of 4 days. 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:
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
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 first survey erroneously concluded that the waters of the Red Sea were 10 meters higher than those of the Mediterranean, making a giant locks based canal much too expensive and very long to construct. The Napoleonic survey commission's error came from fragmented readings mostly done during war period and therefore resulting in imprecise calculations.
In 1854 and 1856
Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained concession from
Said Pasha, the
viceroy of Egypt, whom de Lesseps, as a French diplomat, had come to know in the 1830s and had a very friendly relation with. 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 came into being on December 15 1858.
The excavation operations took nearly eleven years to accomplish, mostly through the forced labor of Egyptians workers. However this unofficial working condition was not specific to the French, nor the British before them, and was actually in use in Egypt for millenaries, since the
pyramids era. 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. The British, willing to stop the French project at any cost, sent armed
bedouins to start a revolt among workers, then involuntary labor ceased on the project, then shortly after, the Viceroy condemned the slavery and the project was stopped [
Axel Engstfeld]. The British government officially condemned the forced work. The British had reached a climax during the
American Civil War as the first naval world force, and they had an ulterior motive as the canal was an important trade route and the French project was perceived as a direct menace to their geopolitical and financial interests. Angry by the British opportunism, de Lesseps sent a letter to the British government remembering him his lack of remorse when 80,000 Egyptian forced workers died in similar conditions, few years earlier, in order to build the British railtrack in Egypt.
At first, the international opinion was sceptic and the Suez Canal Company shares did not sell well overseas . All French shares were quickly sold in France though. A contemporary sceptic British claimed:
Although numerous technical, political, deferments and financial problems were overcome, the final cost was more than double the original estimate. The canal opened to traffic on November 17, 1869.
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 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 , 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.
Present day
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 draft to pass, and improvements are planned to increase this to 22 m 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 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 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 . The previous bridge was destroyed in 1967 during the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- South of the Great Bitter Lake is the , built in 1983. Because of leakage problems, in the period 1992–1995 a was built inside the old one.
Timeline
- Circa 1799: Napoleon I of France conquers Egypt and orders for a feasibility analysis. There is a supposed 10m uneven, the project is estimated expensive and is set in standby.
- Circa 1840: A second survey demonstrates the first one was erroneous. A direct link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea is possible and wouldn't be as expensive as expected.
- Circa 1854: The French consul in Caire, Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps, creates the "Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez"
- 25 Apr 1859: The French are officially allowed to begin the canal construction
- 16 Nov 1869: The Suez Canal opens; operated and owned by Suez Canal Company
- 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
Canal administration
Presidents of the Suez Canal Company
Before nationalization:
- Ferdinand Marie, vicomte de Lesseps, 1855 - 7 Dec 1894
- Jules Guichard, 17 Dec 1892 - 17 Jul 1896
- Auguste Louis Albéric, prince d'Arenberg, 3 Aug 1896 - 1913
- Charles Jonnart, 19 May 1913 - 1927
- Louis de Vogüé, 4 Apr 1927 - 1 Mar 1948
- François Charles-Roux, 4 Apr 1948 - 26 Jul 1956
Chairmen of the Suez Canal Authority
Since nationalization:
- Dr.Mohamed Helmy Bahgat Badawy, 26 Jul.1956 - 9 Jul.1957
- Eng. Mahmoud Younis, 10 Jul.1957 - 10 Oct.1965
- Eng.Mashhour Ahmed Mashhour, 14 Oct.1965 - 31 Dec.1983
- Eng.Mohamed Ezzat Adel, 1 Jan.1984 - Dec.1995
- General Ahmed Ali Fadel, 22 Jan. 1996 - current
Port Suez
;British Vice-Counsuls
- G. E. A. C. Monck-Mason, 1922 - 1924
- G. C. Pierides , 1924 - 1925
- Thomas Cecil Rapp, 1925 - 1926
- Abbas Barry , 1926 - 1927
- E. H. L. Hadwen , 1927 - 1931
- A. N. Williamson-Napier, 1931 - 1934
- H. M. Eyres, 1934 - 1936
- D. J. M. Irving, 1936 - 1940
- R. G. Dundas, 1940 - 1941
;British Consuls
- R. G. Dundas, 1941 - 1942
- H. G. Jakins, 1942 - 1944
- W. B. C. W. Forester, 1944 - 1946
- Frederick Herbert Gamble, 1946 - 1947
- E. M. M. Brett , 1947 - 1948
- C. H. Page, 1948 - 1954
- F. J. Pelly, 1954 - 1955
- J. A. D. Stewart-Robinson , 1955 - 1956
- J. Y. Mulvenny, 1956
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
During the
Suez Crisis:
- 5 Nov 1956 - 22 Dec 1956: Sir Charles Frederic Keightley
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
- Pharaoh is the fourth and last major novel [i] by the Polish [i] writer Boleslaw Prus [i]. ...
- Suez Crisis
- Megaproject
- Cost overrun
External links
- by Zachary Karabell
- of the Suez Canal
Sources
- TV documentary produced by ZDF and directed by Axel Engstfeld
