Suez Canal the Receding Red Sea and the Dwindling Nile

Suez Canal the Receding Red Sea and the Dwindling Nile

The Red Sea is believed by some historians to have gradually receded over the centuries, its coastline slowly moving southward away from Lake Timsah and the Great Bitter Lake. Coupled with persistent accumulations of Nile silt, maintenance and repair of Ptolemy's canal became increasingly cumbersome over each passing century.

Two hundred years after the construction of Ptolemy's canal, Cleopatra seems to have had no west–east waterway passage, because the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which fed Ptolemy's west–east canal, had by that time dwindled, being choked with silt. In support of this contention one can note that in 31 BCE, during a reversal of fortune in Mark Antony's and Cleopatra's war against Octavian, she attempted to escape Egypt with her fleet by raising the ships out of the Mediterranean and dragging them across the isthmus of Suez to the Red Sea. Then, according to Plutarch, the Arabs of Petra attacked and burned the first wave of these ships and Cleopatra abandoned the effort. (Modern historians, however, maintain that her ships were burned by the enemy forces of Malichus I.)

Suez Canal Cairo to the Red Sea

The ancient canal was re-excavated by Roman emperor Trajan in the first century AD, who named it Amnis Traianus after himself. He reportedly moved its mouth on the Nile further south, at the site of what is now Old Cairo. By the time of the Arab conquest in 641 AD, this canal had fallen out of use. The commander of the Muslim force, Amr ibn al-As, ordered that it be restored so as to improve connections between Egypt and Medina, the Muslim capital at the time. The Muslim canal was excavated further north from Trajan's canal, joining the Nile close to what is now the Sayyida Zaynab neighbourhood of Cairo. This canal reportedly ended near modern Suez. The site of the former Roman channel near the Nile was absorbed into the new city of Fustat.

A geography treatise De Mensura Orbis Terrae written by the Irish monk Dicuil (born late 8th century) reports a conversation with another monk, Fidelis, who had sailed on the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the first half of the 8th century.

The Abbasid caliph al-Mansur is said to have ordered this canal closed in 767 to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors. The remaining section of the canal near the Nile, known as the Khalij, continued to serve as part of Cairo's water infrastructure until the 19th century. In later periods, the canal was closed with a dike for much of the year and reopened during the flood season. The Fatimid caliph al-Hakim is claimed to have repaired the Cairo to Red Sea passageway, but only briefly, circa 1000 CE, as it soon "became choked with sand".

Suez Canal Conception by Venice

The successful 1488 navigation of southern Africa by Bartolomeu Dias opened a direct maritime trading route to India and the Spice Islands, and forever changed the balance of Mediterranean trade. One of the most prominent losers in the new order, as former middlemen, was the former spice trading center of Venice.

Venetian leaders, driven to desperation, contemplated digging a waterway between the Red Sea and the Nile, anticipating the Suez Canal by almost 400 years, to bring the luxury trade flooding to their doors again. But this remained a dream.

— Colin Thubron, Seafarers: The Venetians (1980), p. 102
Despite entering negotiations with Egypt's ruling Mamelukes, the Venetian plan to build the canal was quickly put to rest by the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, led by Sultan Selim I.

Suez Canal Ottoman Attempts

During the 16th century, the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha attempted to construct a canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. This was motivated by a desire to connect Constantinople to the pilgrimage and trade routes of the Indian Ocean, as well as by strategic concerns, as the European presence in the Indian Ocean was growing. Ottoman mercantile and strategic interests were increasingly challenged, and the Sublime Porte was increasingly pressed to assert its position. A navigable canal would allow the Ottoman Navy to connect its Red Sea, Black Sea, and Mediterranean fleets. However, this project was deemed too expensive, and was never completed.

Napoleon's Discovery of an Ancient Canal

During the French campaign in Egypt and Syria in late 1798, Napoleon expressed interest in finding the remnants of an ancient waterway passage. This culminated in a cadre of archaeologists, scientists, cartographers and engineers scouring northern Egypt. Their findings, recorded in the Description de l'Égypte, include detailed maps that depict the discovery of an ancient canal extending northward from the Red Sea and then westward toward the Nile.

Later, Napoleon, who became the French Emperor in 1804, contemplated the construction of a north–south canal to connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. But the plan was abandoned because it incorrectly concluded that the waterway would require locks to operate, the construction of which would be costly and time-consuming. The belief in the need for locks was based on the erroneous belief that the Red Sea was 8.5 m (28 ft) higher than the Mediterranean. This was the result of using fragmentary survey measurements taken in wartime during Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition.

As late as 1861, the unnavigable ancient route discovered by Napoleon from Bubastis to the Red Sea still channelled water as far east as Kassassin.

Suez Canal Overview

Suez Canal Coordinates: 30°42′18″N 32°20′39″E

Suez Canal Length: 193.3 km (120.1 miles)
Suez Canal Maximum Boat Beam: 77.5 m (254 ft 3 in)
Suez Canal Maximum Boat Draft: 20.1 m (66 ft)
Suez Canal Locks: None
Suez Canal Navigation Authority: Suez Canal Authority
Suez Canal Construction Began: 25 April 1859
Suez Canal Date Completed: 17 November 1869
Suez Canal Start Point: Port Said
Suez Canal End Point: Suez Port

Suez Canal Route Map

km       W E

           Mediterranean Sea
           Approaches (Southward convoy waiting area)
0.0     Port Said

           Martyr Mujand Abanoub Girgis Bridge
           Al Salam Bridge
51.5   Eastern lane: New Suez Canal (2015)

           El Ferdan Railway Bridge (under construction)
76.5   Ismaïlia, SCA headquarters

           Tunnel Ismailia
           New Ismala
           Lake Timsah

           Maadia Al Qantarah Street
95.0   Deversoir

           Great Bitter Lake
           Small Bitter Lake

           Ahmed Hamdi Northern Tunnel
           Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel
           Martyr Ahmed El-Mansy Pontoon Bridge
           Overhead powerline

162    Suez, Suez Port
           Gulf of Suez (Northward convoy waiting area)
           Red Sea