The Suez Canal :: History Historical Essays

The Suez Canal Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, a Frenchman had long dreamed of a canal that pierced the Isthmus. For most of his life, this was simply a dream. He had made a living for himself by holding political positions in Tunis, Egypt, Rotterdam, Malaga, and Barcelona; had been minister at Madrid, and, finally, at Rome. Something about Egypt had struck him in a way that never truly let go. After roughly twenty five years of service, the French government notified Lesseps that what he was doing in Rome was not being supported. Lesseps managed to quell the problem in 1849, but the experience had left a distasteful mark on him that he couldn’t resolve. This led to his resignation from the service, and into retirement at the age of fifty. Now with the end of his career, he was free in a way that he hadn’t been in a long time. His thoughts again and more frequently drifted to Egypt. What once a dream, was now a possibility. Using connections he had made in Egypt during his time in the service, he made contact with them and immediately following their positive response embarked on a trip to investigate his ever more possible dream. The construction of this project faced formidable opposition. Lesseps appealed to Napoleon for help. Napoleon agreed, and helped put the wheels of this project in motion. It was not until 1869 that the canal was finally opened its one hundred mile stretch completely. It was again modified in 1885 substantially to further increased efficiency. The idea behind the Suez Canal was not invented for the first time in the 19th century. It actually dates back to Ancient Egypt and the Pharos. The Pharos went as Far as building smaller canals in the Nile delta in the Red sea. The first Canal to be excavated is linked strongly by evidence to the Pharaoh Necho in the 6th century BC. During the Persian invasion of Egypt, King Darius gave instructions for a canal to be built which started in the Gulf of Suez and ran to the Bitter Lake. The second part of the canal ran from the Bitter Lake to the Nile delta. This canal was known as the Red Sea Canal. This canal fell into disrepair, but was rectified by the Roman Emperor Trajan, and yet again by the Arab king Amr Ibn-Al-Aas.