| The Suez Canal located west of the Sinai Peninsula, is a 163-km-long (101 miles) and 300-m-wide (984 ft) maritime canal in Egypt between Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea and Suez on the Red Sea. The Suez Canal is often called the "crossroads of Europe, Africa, and Asia" because the route is used to transport goods to and from all three continents. |
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The speciality of the Suez canal is that it allows two-way north to south water transport between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation of Africa. It was Napoleon's engineers who, around 1800 AD, revived the idea of a shorter trade route to India through the Suez Canal. The modern canal was planned by the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, who also supervised construction. |
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In 1859, Egyptian workers started working on the construction of the Canal and the project was completed around 1867. On November 17, 1869, the Canal was officially inaugurated.
The Suez Canal came into forefront on the political scene in 1956, during the time of Suez crisis or emergency. It was in July of that period the Egyptian president Nasser, at age 38, announced the nationalization of the Canal at Mansheya Square in Alexandria in front of an encouraging crowd. His decision was in response to the British, French, and American refusal for a loan aimed at building the Aswan High Dam. The revenue from the Canal, he claimed, would help finance the High Dam project. The announcement generated a rapid reaction by Great Britain, France, and Israel, who all invaded Egypt less than two months later. |
| | In 1967, the Canal was closed at the stir of the Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula, causing the Canal to act as a buffer zone between the fighting forces. The Egyptians reclaimed the Canal upon the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and the re-opening ceremony took place in 1975. Since then, the Canal, which stretches 167 kms across the Egyptian desert, has been enlarged twice. |
Today, approximately 50 ships cross the canal daily, and, with the threat of war long gone, the cities and beaches along the Bitter Lakes and the Canal serve as a summer resort for tourists.
Allwondersoftheworld.com describes the Suez Canal which is one of the world's most important waterways and had great trade significance.
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