The Suez Canal is an artificial waterway, flowing north-south that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. This waterway substantially reduces the sailing distance between Europe and East Asia. No longer do ships have to go the long route around Africa. The canal is west of the Sinai Peninsula, separating it from the rest of Egypt. In our time, about 50 ships pass through the canal each day. Egypt earned $9 billion in fees from it last year.
Construction of the canal took place from 1859 to 1869. In charge of the project was Ferdinand de Lesseps of France. (De Lesseps attempted to repeat his Suez Canal success in Panama during the 1880s. But that canal project was devastated by epidemics of malaria and yellow fever and had other financial problems. The planned Lesseps Panama Canal was never completed. A French court found de Lesseps and his son, Charles, guilty of mismanagement and both were heavily fined. Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States and completed in 1914.)
Already in ancient times, there was a shorter canal built in an east-west direction, facilitating travel from the Nile River to the Red Sea. This canal was built at the order of the Persian king Darius I (522-486 BCE, father of Achashverosh—also known as “Xerxes”—as I have explained in many articles). The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BCE) refers to Darius’ canal work (II, 158). Beginning in 1799—and continuing over the next 100 years—several inscriptions were found in the area, in the name of Darius I. The longest has: “Says Darius the King: ‘I am a Persian; setting out from Persia I conquered Egypt. I was ordered to dig this canal from the river that is called “Nile” and flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended.’” This inscription was discovered in 1866, by Charles de Lesseps—Ferdinand’s son—who was working with him.
Herodotus tells us that Darius was completing the canal work started by Pharaoh Necho II (ruler of Egypt, 610-595 BCE). Herodotus writes that Necho never completed the canal because of an oracle that told him that enemies of Egypt would use it. More likely, it was never completed because Necho was distracted by his battles with Nevuchadnezzar.
By the eighth century, another navigable canal existed, linking the Nile River in the area of Old Cairo to the Red Sea. Accounts differ as to who ordered its construction. A geography treatise from the late eighth century tells of a monk who had sailed on this canal during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in the first half of the eighth century.
Napoleon—who became the French Emperor in 1804—contemplated the construction of a north-south canal to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. But the plan was abandoned because of a belief that the waterway would require locks to operate, the construction of which would be costly. The belief in the need for locks was based on the assumption that the Red Sea was 28 feet higher than the Mediterranean Sea. But in 1846, experts studied the seas further and concluded that there was no practical difference in altitude between them.
De Lesseps had been a French diplomat. He had become friends with Said Pasha during his own diplomatic career. In 1854, Said Pasha became the viceroy of Egypt. (Egypt was still a province of the Ottoman Empire at the time. In 1867, it was granted a different status, the status of an autonomous vassal state—“a Khedivate”—but it was still within the Ottoman Empire.)
A major city near the beginning of the canal is Port Said—established in 1859—was named after “Said Pasha.”
De Lesseps was inspired by Napoleon’s plan. He was not an engineer, but he succeeded in getting himself placed in charge of the project and was able to organize the necessary political and financial backing. De Lesseps convened the “International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez” (translation from the official French). Thirteen experts from seven countries advised on the best route for the canal. The commission produced a report in 1856, containing a detailed description of the plan. The Suez Canal Company came into being in 1858. The canal was going to be open to ships of all nations.
The British government was, initially, opposed to the project. They already controlled the shipping routes to East Asia. They feared that a canal open to all nations would disrupt their maritime supremacy. But after the canal was opened and worked well, Britain changed its attitude and became a strong supporter. (One of the reasons that motivated Britain’s issuance of the Balfour Declaration to help the Jewish people in 1917, was that it was important for Britain to plan to have a friendly state near the area of the Suez Canal. Of course, to balance that help to the Jewish people, in 1919-1922, Britain and its allies let the Arabs set up Arab states in 99% of the defeated Ottoman Empire.)
In 1875, the Egyptian government was in severe financial difficulty, and sold all its shares of the canal company to Britain. French shareholders still held a majority of the shares. Within a few years, both British and French comptrollers were sitting in the Egyptian cabinet, and they became the real powers in the government.
Local dissatisfaction with the European intrusion into the government led to the formation of Egyptian nationalist groups in 1879. After increased tensions and revolts, Britain invaded Egypt in 1882, crushing the Egyptian army and militarily occupying the country. Following this, Egypt became a de facto British protectorate, even though nominally under Ottoman sovereignty.
The Convention of Constantinople was a treaty signed in 1888, by all the great European powers of the era concerning the use of the Suez Canal. It guaranteed the right of passage of all ships through the Suez Canal during war and peace. Egypt—through whose territory the canal ran through and to which all shares of the Suez Canal Company were to revert when the company’s 99-year lease to manage the canal expired—was not invited to participate in the negotiations and did not sign the treaty.
In July 1956, Nasser’s Egyptian government decided to immediately nationalize the Suez Canal Company, eliminating the rights of all the foreign shareholders. In June of 1967, unwilling to allow Israel to use the canal, Egypt closed the canal to all shipping. The canal remained closed for eight years, with both ends blocked. The closing was done without warning and consequently 15 cargo ships (from eight countries) and their crews remained trapped in the canal until its reopening in 1975. The canal had to be closed for all these years because it was an unsafe area, as Israel controlled the east side of the canal and its enemy, Egypt, controlled the west side. The stranded ships were nicknamed the “Yellow Fleet,” because of the desert sand that eventually coated them. Upon the reopening, only two of the ships were able to move under their own power.
Over the eight years, 3,000 seafarers served on the trapped ships, maintaining the vessels and protecting their cargo. The crews from the different countries—with different political philosophies—nevertheless became a community, exchanging supplies and skills and coordinating social and sports activities. One can read more about this episode in the “Yellow Fleet” entry on Wikipedia. A book about this is “Stranded in the Six-Day War,” by Cath Senker (2017).
Mitchell First, an attorney and historian, can be reached at [email protected]. Like Charles de Lesseps, he worked for his father for many years. But in contrast to Charles, this did not lead him to any archaeological discoveries!
