First Ship Passes Through the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal, a vital waterway connecting Africa and Eurasia, officially opened on February 17, 1867, when it welcomed its first ship. Spanning over 100 miles, the canal links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, significantly shortening maritime routes between Europe and destinations in the Indian Ocean. Its construction was championed by French diplomat Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps, leading to the formation of the Universal Company of the Maritime Suez Canal, which oversaw the project. Although an ancient canal existed in the region, it was not suitable for modern shipping needs, prompting renewed interest in the 19th century. The Suez Canal plays a crucial role in global trade and has undergone various expansions and improvements since its inception. It operates without locks, as the water levels between the Mediterranean and Red Seas are nearly identical. Over the years, the canal has experienced political turmoil, including conflicts involving Egypt and foreign powers, but it remains a key artery for international shipping today.
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First Ship Passes Through the Suez Canal
First Ship Passes Through the Suez Canal
The canal through the narrow Isthmus of Suez in northern Egypt began operating on February 17, 1867. Just over 70 miles long, the isthmus connects the two largest continents in the world, Africa and Eurasia, and separates the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, an arm of the Indian Ocean. The utility of a canal connecting the two bodies of water through the narrow isthmus had been obvious from early times, but it was not finally accomplished until this day in 1867, when the first ship traversed the newly constructed Suez Canal.
An early predecessor to the Suez Canal existed in the form of a shallow canal from the mouth of the Nile River on the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. It was constructed by the ancient Egyptians somewhere between 1400 and 1200 b.c., perhaps during the reign of Seti I or Ramses II. It was largely neglected during its long history, and by the eighth century a.d. all efforts to keep it in any semblance of working order were abandoned. The canal was simply too shallow for large-scale transportation and too prone to silting up with sand blown in on the desert winds. However, the vision of an effective Suez canal never truly died. Until the 19th century, the only way for Europeans to reach the rich ports of the Persian Gulf and India and other destinations in the Indian Ocean by water was to sail all the way around the continent of Africa.
In the 1850s a French diplomat named Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps approached the Viceroy of Egypt, Said Pasha, about building a Suez canal. In 1858 the Universal Company of the Maritime Suez Canal was organized, with permission to dig a canal through the Isthmus of Suez and with the exclusive rights to its operation for 99 years, at which point it would be handed over to Egypt. Construction began on April 25, 1859; the first vessel successfully navigated the new Suez Canal on February 17, 1867; and full operation began on November 17, 1869. The Canal has been repaired, expanded, and improved on several occasions, and today it is approximately 100 miles long with the capacity to transit ships as large as 150,000 tons in size. It takes a somewhat indirect route through the Isthmus, adding some 30 miles to the journey, because it utilizes the Bitter Lakes and two other local bodies of water (Lake Manzilah and Lake Timsa) to facilitate passage. Unlike the Panama Canal, it has no locks, because the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea have virtually identical water levels.
The Universal Company of the Maritime Suez Canal was originally owned jointly by the Egyptians and the French, but the British bought out the Egyptians in 1875. Years of conflict ensued in which the British and Egyptians struggled for control of the Canal, culminating in an invasion by Israeli, French, and British forces in October 1956. Intervention by the United Nations and the United States ended this dispute, which had been prompted by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's nationalizing of the Canal to raise revenues to build the Aswan High Dam, as well as his prior prohibition of the Canal's use by Israel. The Canal was reopened in March 1957, and in 1958 Egypt agreed to compensation whereby financial restitution would be made to the shareholders in the old Suez Canal Company.
The Suez Canal has continued to be an important artery of world trade up to the present day. During the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the 1960s and early 1970s it was shut down for fairly extended periods of time, but by the mid-1970s normal operation had resumed. Egypt finally permitted unrestricted transit to and from Israel through the Canal in 1979, and the operation of the waterway has been largely peaceful since then.