Home World The incredible megaproject branded 'Ancient World's Suez Canal' built by Egypt's Pharaohs

The incredible megaproject branded 'Ancient World's Suez Canal' built by Egypt's Pharaohs


Navigable waterways have been dug since the times of Ancient Egypt. While the Suez Canal is a more recent addition to the man-made canals across the country, its several pharaohs over many different periods connected the Red Sea with the Nile River.

The Canal of the Pharaohs, also known as Necho’s Canal or the Ancient Suez Canal was constructed and kept in use, with intermission, until being closed in 767 AD for strategic reasons.

Unlike its modern counterpart, the canal linked the Nile to the Red Sea via Wadi Tumilat.

According to Aristotle, the first attempt to dig in this region was made by the Egyptian Pharaoh Sesostris, who could either be Senusret III (circa 1800 BC) or Ramesses II (circa 1200 BC).

However, construction was halted when the pharaoh discovered issues surrounding differences in height between the sea and land. He also feared that opening the Nile to the Red Sea would pollute the river with salt water, spoiling the Egyptians’ most important water source.

There is, however, debate among ancient historians as to who completed the project.

According to Greek historians Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, work was continued by Necho II in the late sixth century BC, but he died before construction was completed.

The Persian King Darius the Great is then said to have picked up the project, but also stopped when he was informed that the Red Sea would submerge the land if an opening was made due to its higher level. 

Construction was finally finished by Ptolemy II, with a 50-metre-wide canal of sufficient depth to float large ships, according to Strabo. It is said to have begun at the village of Phacusa, transverse the Bitter Lakes, and emptied into the Gulf of Arabia near the city of Cleopatris. 

However, according to Herodotus, the canal was completed by Darius, a stretch wide enough for two triremes (ancient oar-driven warships powered by about 170 oarsmen) to pass each other with oars extended. By this period, a natural waterway passage may have existed between the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea, but it had become very silted up. Using a huge army of slaves, Darius cleared the passage out so navigation could restart.

Darius is said to have left several inscriptions boasting of his accomplishments, including one discovered in the mid-nineteenth century which said: “I ordered to dig this canal from the river that is called Nile and flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended.”

Another stela, the Stone of Pithom, discovered in the late nineteenth century provides evidence that Ptolemy constructed a navigable lock with sluices (a sliding gate) at the Heropolite Gulf to allow the passage of vessels but prevented salt water from flowing into the canal. 

The canal continued to be used intermittently until it was closed by Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur in 767 to prevent his enemies and rebels from using it to ship men and supplies to his detractors in Arabia. 

The canal was difficult to repair and by the Muslim conquest in 641 AD, it had silted up and fallen out of use. 

During the Egyptian expedition, Napoleon Bonaparte learned about the canal in the late 1790s when his surveyor discovered the remains of the canal. He considered rebuilding as it would allow France to monopolise trade with India, but, like his two millennia-old predecessors, was told the Red Sea was much higher than the Mediterranean and was deemed too expensive to construct. 

The canal’s remaining section near the Nile, known as Khalji, continued to serve a local function until the late 1890s when it was then filled in and converted into what is now Port Said Street. 

Over a millennium after its closure, the Suez Canal re-established a direct sea route between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea in 1896. Thankfully for modern engineers, unlike previous concerns, the canal has no locks as the sea levels were the same.

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