Suez Canal Essay, Research Paper

The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is an achievement that man has made and

a great help through the entire world. This is one of

many difficult tasks that man has done and completed.

This was a big task and a big construction and was done

many years ago. This canal only transported a little

water and was not deep enough for ships or boats.

The idea of liking the Mediterranean Sea and Red sea first

occurred during the age of the pharaohs. The pharaoh dug

the canal to link both seas but soon after the canal was

neglected and eventually got filled in by silt. Along

came the Greeks and they dug the canal out again. Once

again the canal was neglected and happen to fill in with

silt again. The Romans dug it out a couple of times and

then they too neglected the canal. Finally the Arab

conquest of Egypt dug it for the last time.

During the French campaign of 1798, Napoleon thought of

linking the two seas directly by means of navigation canal,

but engineers did not support the idea of believing that

the Red Sea level is nine meters higher than the

Mediterranean.

On November 30, 1854 the French engineer Ferdinand

De-lesseps managed to sign a concession with the Egyptian

government to dig the Suez Canal.

On April 25. 1859 the digging of the Canal began and

continued for ten years. More than 1.5 million Egyptian

workers took part, of which more than 125,000 lost their

lives.

November 17th, 1876 the inauguration of the Suez Canal

came

to be.

In July 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal after it

had been an international company for about 87 years.

The Suez Canal?s strategic importance lies in the fact that

it is essential for world trade. It transports 14% of the

total world trade, 26% of oil exports, 41% of the total

volume of goods and cargo that reach Arab Gulf ports.

The Suez Canal saves 86% of the normal trip if used

instead of going around the whole continent.

The Egyptian government has always tried to make the best

of what it can of the Suez Canal and trying to make it

better for ships passing through. This way it is a lot

easier for big ships to come through along with making it

faster and safer. At the present moment the Suez Canal

can accommodate ships up to 500 meters long, 70 meters

wide and a draught of 70 feet. Also every year more than

25,000 ships pass through the canal. The canal is a total

of 100 miles long and surprisingly has no locks to

accommodate the 9-meter drop.

People have had dreams for over 4,000 years to build a

canal that ships could transport good to other countries

and to trade with other countries with out going so far

out of the way. This is a dream come true for every one

that uses the canal. Many people in the Middle East can?t

possibly think of what life would be like without the canal.

Suez Timeline. 1995.

http:www.sis.gov.eg/calendar/html/cl171196.htm

Suez canal. Compton?s Encyclopedia Online. 1998

http://www.optionline.com/comptons/ceo/04610_A.html

Suez Canal.

Encyclopedia Britannica. 1998.

http://www.encyclopidia.com/articles/12444.html