Suez Canal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Suez Canal SuezCanal-EO.JPG Specifications Locks None Status Open Navigation authority Suez Canal Authority History Original owner Suez Canal Company (Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez) Construction began 25 April 1859 Date completed November 1869 Geography Branch(es) The New Suez Canal The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس Qanāt al-Sūwais) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction, it allows ships to travel between Europe and eastern Asia without navigating around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said; the southern terminus is Port Tawfiq at the city of Suez. Ismailia is on its west bank, 3 km (1.9 mi) from the half-way point.[1] When built, the canal was 164 km (102 mi) long and 8 m (26 ft) deep. After several enlargements, it is 193.30 km (120.11 mi) long, 24 m (79 ft) deep and 205 metres (673 ft) wide.[2] It consists of the northern access channel of 22 km (14 mi), the canal itself of 162.25 km (100.82 mi) and the southern access channel of 9 km (5.6 mi).[3] The canal is single lane with passing places in the Ballah By-Pass and the Great Bitter Lake.[4] It contains no locks; seawater flows freely through it. In general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. The current south of the lakes changes with the tide at Suez.[5] The canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority[6] (SCA) of Egypt. Under international treaty, it may be used in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag.[7] 17,225 vessels traversed the canal in 2012.[8] In August 2014, construction was launched to construct a second canal for half of the route of the canal, costing $4 billion, to increase the canals capacity.[9] To be funded by an IPO open only to Egyptian companies and individuals, the expansion was expected to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. Construction of the project was expected to take a year.[10] Contents [hide] * 1 History o 1.1 Nile–Red Sea Canal(s) + 1.1.1 2nd millennium BC + 1.1.2 Canals dug by Necho, Darius I and Pithom + 1.1.3 Receding Red Sea and the dwindling Nile + 1.1.4 Old Cairo to the Red Sea + 1.1.5 Repair by Tāriqu l-Ḥākim + 1.1.6 Napoleon discovers an ancient canal o 1.2 Mediterranean–Red Sea Canal + 1.2.1 Interim period + 1.2.2 Construction by Suez Canal Company + 1.2.3 Suez Crisis + 1.2.4 Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973 * 2 Canal layout and operation o 2.1 Capacity o 2.2 Navigation o 2.3 Operation o 2.4 Convoy sailing o 2.5 Canal crossings * 3 Alternative routes o 3.1 Cape Agulhas o 3.2 Northern Sea Route o 3.3 Negev desert railroad * 4 Environmental impact * 5 Timeline o 5.1 Leadership * 6 References * 7 Sources * 8 External links History[edit] Northern outlet of the Suez Nile–Red Sea Canal(s)[edit] Main article: Canal of the Pharaohs Ancient west–east canals were built to facilitate travel from the Nile to the Red Sea.[11][12][13] One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of Senusret II[14] or Ramesses II.[11][12][13] Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first,[11][12] was constructed under the reign of Necho II, but the only fully functional canal was engineered and completed by Darius I.[11][12][13] 2nd millennium BC[edit] The legendary Sesostris (likely either Pharaoh Senusret II or Senusret III of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt[14][15]) is suggested to have perhaps started work on an ancient canal joining the Nile with the Red Sea (1897 BC–1839 BC). (It is said that in ancient times the Red Sea reached northward to the Bitter Lakes[11][12] and Lake Timsah.[16][17]) In his Meteorology, Aristotle wrote: One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it.[18] Strabo wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote: 165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.[19] In the second half of the 19th century, French cartographers discovered the remnants of an ancient north–south canal past the east side of Lake Timsah and ending near the north end of the Great Bitter Lake.[20] This proved to be the celebrated canal made by the Persian king Darius I, as his stele commemorating its construction was found at the site. (This ancient, second canal may have followed a course along the shoreline of the Red Sea when it once extended north to Lake Timsah.[17][20]) In the 20th century the northward extension of this ancient canal was discovered, extending from Lake Timsah to the Ballah Lakes.[21] This was dated to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt by extrapolating the dates of ancient sites along its course.[21] The reliefs of the Punt expedition under Hatshepsut 1470 BC depict seagoing vessels carrying the expeditionary force returning from Punt. This has given rise to the suggestion that a navigable link existed between the Red Sea and the Nile.[22][23] Evidence seems to indicate its existence by the 13th century BC during the time of Ramesses II.[11][24][25][26] Canals dug by Necho, Darius I and Pithom[edit] Remnants of an ancient west–east canal through the ancient Egyptian cities of Bubastis, Pi-Ramesses, and Pithom were discovered by Napoleon Bonaparte and his engineers and cartographers in 1799.[12][27][28][29][30] According to the Histories of the Greek historian Herodotus,[31] about 600 BC, Necho II undertook to dig a west–east canal through the Wadi Tumilat between Bubastis and Heroopolis,[12] and perhaps continued it to the Heroopolite Gulf and the Red Sea.[11] Regardless, Necho is reported as having never completed his project.[11][12] Herodotus was told that 120,000 men perished in this undertaking, but this figure is doubtlessly exaggerated.[32] According to Pliny the Elder, Nechos extension to the canal was about 57 English miles,[12] equal to the total distance between Bubastis and the Great Bitter Lake, allowing for winding through valleys that it had to pass through.[12] The length that Herodotus tells us, of over 1000 stadia (i.e., over 114 miles), must be understood to include the entire distance between the Nile and the Red Sea[12] at that time. With Nechos death, work was discontinued. Herodotus tells us that the reason the project was abandoned was because of a warning received from an oracle that others would benefit by its successful completion.[12][33] In fact, Nechos war with Nebuchadnezzar II most probably prevented the canals continuation. Nechos project was completed by Darius I of Persia, who ruled over Ancient Egypt after it had been conquered by his predecessor Cambyses II.[34] We are told that by Dariuss time a natural[12] waterway passage which had existed[11] between the Heroopolite Gulf and the Red Sea[35] in the vicinity of the Egyptian town of Shaluf[12] (alt. Chalouf[36] or Shaloof[17]), located just south of the Great Bitter Lake,[12][17] had become so blocked[11] with silt[12] that Darius needed to clear it out so as to allow navigation[12] once again. According to Herodotus, Dariuss canal was wide enough that two triremes could pass each other with oars extended, and required four days to traverse. Darius commemorated his achievement with a number of granite stelae that he set up on the Nile bank, including one near Kabret, and a further one a few miles north of Suez. The Darius Inscriptions read:[37] Saith King Darius: I am a Persian. Setting out from Persia, I conquered Egypt. I ordered this canal dug from the river called the Nile that flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. When the canal had been dug as I ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, even as I intended. —Darius Inscription The canal left the Nile at Bubastis. An inscription on a pillar at Pithom records that in 270 or 269 BC it was again reopened, by Ptolemy II Philadelphus.[38] In Arsinoe,[12] Ptolemy constructed a navigable lock, with sluices, at the Heroopolite Gulf of the Red Sea,[35] which allowed the passage of vessels but prevented salt water from the Red Sea from mingling with the fresh water in the canal.[12] Receding Red Sea and the dwindling Nile[edit] The Red Sea is believed by some historians to have gradually receded over the centuries, its coastline slowly moving southward away from Lake Timsah[16][17] and the Great Bitter Lake.[11][12] Coupled with persistent accumulations of Nile silt, maintenance and repair of Ptolemys canal became increasingly cumbersome over each passing century. Two hundred years after the construction of Ptolemys canal, Cleopatra seems to have had no west–east waterway passage,[11][12] because the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which had fed Ptolemys west–east canal, had by that time dwindled, being choked with silt.[11][12] Old Cairo to the Red Sea[edit] By the 8th century, a navigable canal existed between Old Cairo and the Red Sea,[11][12] but accounts vary as to who ordered its construction—either Trajan or Amr ibn al-As, or Omar the Great.[11][12] This canal reportedly linked to the River Nile at Old Cairo[12] and ended near modern Suez.[11][39] A geography treatise by Dicuil reports a conversation with an English 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[40] The Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur is said to have ordered this canal closed in 767 to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors.[11][12] Repair by Tāriqu l-Ḥākim[edit] Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is claimed to have repaired the Cairo to Red Sea passageway,[11][12] but only briefly, circa 1000 AD,[11][12] as it soon became choked with sand.[12] However, we are told that parts of this canal still continued to fill in during the Niles annual inundations.[11][12] Napoleon discovers an ancient canal[edit] Napoleon Bonapartes interest in finding the remnants of an ancient waterway passage[41] culminated in a cadre of archaeologists, scientists, cartographers and engineers scouring the area beginning in the latter months of 1798.[42] Their findings, recorded in the Description de lÉgypte, include detailed maps that depict the discovery of an ancient canal extending northward from the Red Sea and then westward toward the Nile.[41][43] Napoleon had contemplated the construction of a north–south canal to join the Mediterranean and Red Sea, but this was abandoned after the preliminary survey erroneously concluded that the Red Sea was 10 metres (33 ft) higher than the Mediterranean, requiring locks that were too expensive and very long to construct. The error came from fragmented readings mostly done during wartime, which resulted in imprecise calculations.[44] Though by this time unnavigable,[12] the ancient route from Bubastis to the Red Sea still channeled water in spots as late as 1861[12] and as far east as Kassassin. Mediterranean–Red Sea Canal[edit] Interim period[edit] Topographic map, northern Gulf of Suez, route to Cairo, 1856. Although the alleged difference in sea levels could be problematic for construction, the idea of finding a shorter route to the east remained alive. In 1830, F. R. Chesney submitted a report to the British government that stated that there was no difference in altitude and that the Suez Canal was feasible, but his report received no further attention. Lieutenant Waghorn established his Overland Route, which transported post and passengers to India via Egypt. Linant de Bellefonds, a French explorer of Egypt, became chief engineer of Egypts Public Works. In addition to his normal duties, he surveyed the Isthmus of Suez and made plans for the Suez Canal. French Saint-Simonianists showed an interest in the canal and in 1833, Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin tried to draw Muhammad Alis attention to the canal but was unsuccessful. Alois Negrelli, the Austrian railroad pioneer, became interested in the idea in 1836. In 1846, Prosper Enfantins Société dÉtudes du Canal de Suez invited a number of experts, among them Robert Stephenson, Negrelli and Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue to study the feasibility of the Suez Canal (with the assistance of Linant de Bellefonds). Bourdaloues survey of the isthmus was the first generally accepted evidence that there was no practical difference in altitude between the two seas. Britain, however, feared that a canal open to everyone might interfere with its India trade and therefore preferred a connection by train from Alexandria via Cairo to Suez, which was eventually built by Stephenson. Construction by Suez Canal Company[edit] 1881 drawing of the Suez Canal. Suez Canal, Egypt. early 1900s. Goodyear Archival Collection. Brooklyn Museum In 1854 and 1856 Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained a concession from Said Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, to create a company to construct a canal open to ships of all nations. The company was to operate the canal for 99 years from its opening. De Lesseps had used his friendly relationship with Said, which he had developed while he was a French diplomat in the 1830s. As stipulated in the concessions, de Lesseps convened the International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez (Commission Internationale pour le percement de listhme des Suez) consisting of 13 experts from seven countries, among them John Robinson McClean, later President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, and again Negrelli, to examine the plans of Linant de Bellefonds and to advise on the feasibility of and the best route for the canal. After surveys and analyses in Egypt and discussions in Paris on various aspects of the canal, where many of Negrellis ideas prevailed, the commission produced a unanimous report in December 1856 containing a detailed description of the canal complete with plans and profiles.[45] The Suez Canal Company (Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez) came into being on 15 December 1858 and work started on the shore of the future Port Said on 25 April 1859. The excavation took some 10 years using forced labor (corvée) of Egyptian workers. Some sources estimate that over 30,000 people were working on the canal at any given period, that more than 1.5 million people from various countries were employed, and that thousands of laborers died.[46][47] The British government had opposed the project from the outset to its completion. As one of the diplomatic moves against the canal, it disapproved of the use of slave labor of forced workers. The British Empire was the major global naval force and officially condemned the forced work and sent armed Bedouins to start a revolt among workers. Involuntary labor on the project ceased, and the viceroy condemned the corvée, halting the project.[48] Angered by the British opportunism, de Lesseps sent a letter to the British government remarking on the British lack of remorse a few years earlier when forced workers died in similar conditions building the British railway in Egypt. Initially international opinion was sceptical and Suez Canal Company shares did not sell well overseas. Britain, the United States, Austria, and Russia did not buy a significant number of shares.[49] All French shares were quickly sold in France. A contemporary British sceptic claimed: “ One thing is sure... our local merchant community doesnt pay practical attention at all to this grand work, and it is legitimate to doubt that the canals receipts... could ever be sufficient to recover its maintenance fee. It will never become a large ships accessible way in any case.[50] ” One of the first traverses in the 19th century. Predominant currents in the Mediterranean Sea for June. Suez Canal in February 1934. Air photograph taken by Swiss pilot and photographer Walter Mittelholzer. The canal opened on 17 November 1869. Although numerous technical, political, and financial problems had been overcome, the final cost was more than double the original estimate. The opening was performed by Khedive Ismail of Egypt and Sudan, and at Ismails invitation French Empress Eugenie in the Imperial yacht Aigle piloted by Napoléon Coste, who was bestowed by the Khedive the Order of the Medjidie (Blue Flame of Service c 1955). The first ship through the canal was the British P&O liner Delta.[51] Although LAigle was officially the first vessel through the canal, HMS Newport, captained by George Nares, passed through it first. On the night before the canal was due to open, Captain Nares navigated his vessel, in total darkness and without lights, through the mass of waiting ships until it was in front of LAigle. When dawn broke the French were horrified to find that the Royal Navy was first in line and that it would be impossible to pass them. Nares received both an official reprimand and an unofficial vote of thanks from the Admiralty for his actions in promoting British interests and for demonstrating such superb seamanship.[52] After the opening the Suez Canal Company was in financial difficulties. The remaining works were completed only in 1871, and traffic was below expectations in the first two years. De Lesseps therefore tried to increase revenues by interpreting the kind of net ton referred to in the second concession (tonneau de capacité) as meaning a ships cargo capacity and not only the theoretical net tonnage of the Moorsom System introduced in Britain by the Merchant Shipping Act in 1854. The ensuing commercial and diplomatic activities resulted in the International Commission of Constantinople establishing a specific kind of net tonnage and settling the question of tariffs in its protocol of 18 December 1873.[53] This was the origin of the Suez Canal Net Tonnage and the Suez Canal Special Tonnage Certificate still used. The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade. Combined with the American transcontinental railroad completed six months earlier, it allowed the world to be circled in record time. It played an important role in increasing European colonisation of Africa. The construction of the canal was one of the reasons for the Panic of 1873, because goods from the Far East were carried in sailing vessels around the Cape of Good Hope and were stored in British warehouses. As sailing vessels were not adaptable for use through the canal, because the prevailing winds of the Mediterranean blow from west to east, British entrepôt trade suffered.[54] External debts forced Said Pashas successor, Ismail Pasha, to sell his countrys share in the canal for £4,000,000 (about £85.9 million in 2013) to the United Kingdom in 1875, but French shareholders still held the majority. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was accused by William Ewart Gladstone of undermining Britains constitutional system, because he had not referred to, or obtained consent from Parliament when purchasing the shares with funding from the Rothschilds.[55] The Convention of Constantinople in 1888 declared the canal a neutral zone under the protection of the British, who had occupied Egypt and Sudan at the request of Khedive Tewfiq to suppress the Urabi Revolt against his rule. They defended the strategically important passage against a major Ottoman attack in 1915, during the First World War.[56] Under the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the UK retained control over the canal. In 1951 Egypt repudiated the treaty, and in October 1954 the UK agreed to remove its troops. Withdrawal was completed on 18 July 1956. Suez Crisis[edit] Main article: Suez Crisis Because of Egyptian overtures towards the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew their pledge to support the construction of the Aswan Dam. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser responded by nationalizing the canal in 1956 and transferring it to the Suez Canal Authority, intending to finance the dam project using revenue from the canal. This led up to the Suez Crisis, known in the Arab World as the Tripartite Aggression, in which the UK, France, and Israel invaded Egypt. According to the pre-agreed war plans under the Protocol of Sèvres, the Israelis invaded the Sinai Peninsula, forcing Egypt to engage them militarily, and allowing the Anglo-French partnership to declare the resultant fighting a threat to the canal and enter the war on Israels side. To save the British from what he thought was a disastrous action and to stop the war from a possible escalation, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester B. Pearson proposed the creation of the first United Nations peacekeeping force to ensure access to the canal for all and an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. On 4 November 1956, a majority at the United Nations voted for Pearsons peacekeeping resolution, which mandated the UN peacekeepers to stay in Sinai unless both Egypt and Israel agreed to their withdrawal. The United States backed this proposal by putting pressure on the British government through the selling of sterling, which would cause it to depreciate. Britain then agreed to withdraw its troops. Pearson was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As a result of damage and ships sunk under orders from Nasser the canal was closed until April 1957, when it was cleared with UN assistance.[57] A UN force (UNEF) was established to maintain the free navigability of the canal, and peace in the Sinai Peninsula. According to the prominent historian Abd aI-’Azim Ramadan, Nassers decision to nationalize the Suez Canal was his alone, made without political or military consultation. The events leading up to the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, as other events during Nasser’s rule, showed Nasser’s inclination to solitary decision making. He considers Nasser to be far from a rational, responsible leader.[58] Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973[edit] Israeli tanks crossing the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War A US Navy RH-53D sweeping the Suez Canal in 1974. In May 1967 President Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the UN peacekeeping forces out of Sinai, including the Suez Canal area. Israel objected to the closing of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The canal had been closed to Israeli shipping since 1949, except for a short period in 1951–1952. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War the canal was closed by an Egyptian blockade until 5 June 1975. As a result, 14 cargo ships known as The Yellow Fleet were trapped in the canal for over eight years. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the canal was the scene of a major crossing by the Egyptian army into Israeli-occupied Sinai and a counter-crossing by the Israeli army to Egypt. Much wreckage from this conflict remains visible along the canals edges.[citation needed] After the Yom Kippur War the United States initiated Operation Nimbus Moon. The amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima was sent to the Canal, carrying 12 RH-53D minesweeping helicopters of HM-12. These partly cleared the canal between May and December 1974. She was relieved by the LST USS Barnstable County (LST1197). The British Royal Navy initiated Operation Rheostat and Task Group 65.2 provided the Minehunters HMS Maxton, HMS Bossington and HMS Wilton, and HMS Abdiel, a practice minelayer/MCMV support ship that spent two periods of 6 months in 1974 and in 1975 based at Ismailia. When the Canal Clearance Operations were completed, the canal and its lakes were considered 99% clear of mines. The canal was then reopened by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat aboard an Egyptian destroyer, which led the first convoy northbound to Port Said in 1975.[59] The UNEF mandate expired in 1979. Despite the efforts of the United States, Israel, Egypt, and others to obtain an extension of the UN role in observing the peace between Israel and Egypt, as called for under the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty of 1979, the mandate could not be extended because of the veto by the USSR in the security council, at the request of Syria. Accordingly, negotiations for a new observer force in the Sinai produced the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), stationed in Sinai in 1981 in coordination with a phased Israeli withdrawal. It is there under agreements between the United States, Israel, Egypt, and other nations.[60] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal
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