LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Suez Canal
built 214 days ago
The Suez Canal is 101 miles long, connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. It was a vital route for Britain, allowing shipping to go the shorter route from India and other Asian and African parts of Empire. The canal connects a number of lakes, and is wide, nearly 150 feet. On the western bank runs the so-called Sweet Water Canal, with main controls at Ismailia, the only large-scale source of drinking water for the area. Main defences were created on the west bank, with outposts on the east bank. Supply to the troops was by railway running from Ismailia to Cairo.
Source:
The Suez Canal, Egypt ( 9°56'9.62"N, 32°33'52.53"E) is one of the world's most important waterways and its Sumed Pipeline is considered a significant geographic oil transit chokepoints from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The Suez Canal is west of the Sinai Peninsula and serves as a two-way water transport route between Europe and Asia. It is 190 km long and 300 meters wide. The canal supports approximately 8% of the world’s shipping traffic with almost fifty vessels traveling through the canal daily.
Source:
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and Red seas. The Red Sea is about 1.2 m higher than the Eastern Mediterranean [11], so the canal serves as a tidal strait that pours Red Sea water into the Mediterranean. The Bitter Lakes, which are hypersaline natural lakes that form part of the canal, blocked the migration of Red Sea species into the Mediterranean for many decades, but as the salinity of the lakes gradually equalized with that of the Red Sea, the barrier to migration was removed, and plants and animals from the Red Sea have begun to colonize the eastern Mediterranean. The Red Sea is generally saltier and more nutrient-poor than the Atlantic, the direction of flow is generally from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, so the Red Sea species have advantages over Atlantic species in the salty and nutrient-poor Eastern Mediterranean. Accordingly, most Red Sea species invade the Mediterranean biota, and only few do the opposite; this migratory phenomenon is known as the Lessepsian migration (after Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer of the canal) or Erythrean invasion. The construction of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in the 1960s reduced the inflow of freshwater and nutrient-rich silt from the Nile into the eastern Mediterranean, making conditions there even more like the Red Sea, and worsening the impact of the invasive species.
Source:
The Suez Canal is an artificial waterway of about 190 km in length running across the Isthmus of Suez in northeastern Egypt which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez, an arm of the Red Sea. It has no locks, because the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Suez have roughly the same water level and ... is the world's longest canal without locks. It acts as a shortcut for ships between both European and American ports and ports located in southern Asia, eastern Africa, and Oceania. Because of obvious geographical considerations, the maritime route from Europe to the Indian and Pacific oceans must contour the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost point of the African continent. The minimum width of the channel is 60 meters and ships of 16 meters (58 feet) draft can make the transit. The canal can accommodate ships as large as 150,000 deadweight tons fully loaded.
Source:
The story of how de Lesseps became involved in building the Suez Canal has often been told, but to make this little article complete a brief history is now to be related. Napoleon's dream of a canal across the isthmus between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea caught the imagination of de Lesseps. Ever since then he learnt about Napoleon's dream he began to plan, think, and dream about how the Suez Canal could be built, but with no real expectation of fulfilment. While a French consul at Cairo in the 1930s he had got to know Prince Said of Egypt very well. It was in 1854 that Said had come to the throne of Egypt, and de Lesseps had retired from the Foreign Service. Within a matter of two months, in Egypt, both he and Said had come to an agreement to build the canal.
Source:
Suez Canal was performed by French Empress Eugenie on 17th November 1869 in the Imperial yacht Aigle. This was the crowning glory of de Lesseps achievement. The first ship to follow the yacht Aigle through the canal was the British P & O liner Delta. The world, especially the French nation, considered the Suez Canal epitomised the age, and it appeared that de Lesseps had performed the impossible. It was often compared as a gigantic achievement that rivalled the building of the Great Pyramid, yet benefiting all mankind by being freely open to the ships of all nations.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Suez Canal