Which canal connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The Suez Canal is a link between Africa and Eurasia

Suez Canal- a navigable lockless sea canal in the northeast of Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The Suez Canal is the shortest waterway between the ports of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans (8-15 thousand km less than the route around Africa).

The Suez Canal Zone is considered a conditional border between two continents: Asia and Africa. The main ports of entry are Port Said from the Mediterranean Sea and Suez from the Red Sea. The Suez Canal runs along the Isthmus of Suez in its lowest and narrowest part, crossing a series of lakes and the Menzala Lagoon.

The idea of digging a canal across the Isthmus of Suez arose in ancient times. Ancient historians report that the Theban pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom era tried to build a canal connecting the right branch of the Nile with the Red Sea.

The first reliable historical evidence of the connection of the Mediterranean and Red Seas by a canal dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Necho II (late 7th - early 6th century BC).

The expansion and improvement of the canal was carried out by order of the Persian king Darius I, who conquered Egypt, and subsequently by Ptolemy Philadelphus (first half of the 3rd century BC). At the end of the era of the pharaohs in Egypt, the canal fell into a state of decline.

However, after the Arab conquest of Egypt, the canal was restored again in 642, but was filled in in 776 to channel trade through the main areas of the caliphate.

Plans for the restoration of the canal, developed later (in 1569 by order of the vizier of the Ottoman Empire Mehmed Sokollu and by the French during Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition in 1798-1801), were not implemented.

The idea of building the Suez Canal arose again in the second half of the 19th century. The world during this period was experiencing the era of colonial division. North Africa, the part of the continent closest to Europe, attracted the attention of the leading colonial powers - France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. Egypt was the subject of rivalry between Britain and France.

The nationalization of the canal served as a pretext for the Anglo-Franco-Israeli aggression against Egypt at the end of October 1956. The Suez Canal suffered significant damage, traffic along it was interrupted and resumed only on April 24, 1957, after the completion of the canal cleaning work.

As a result of the Arab-Israeli "Six Day War" of 1967, navigation through the Suez Canal was again interrupted, as the canal zone actually turned into a front line separating Egyptian and Israeli troops, and during the October 1973 war, into an area of active military operations.

The annual damage caused by inaction to the Suez Canal was estimated at 4-5 billion dollars.

In 1974, after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Suez Canal zone, Egypt began clearing, restoring and reconstructing the canal. On June 5, 1975, the Suez Canal was reopened to navigation.

In 1981, the first stage of the canal reconstruction project was completed, which made it possible to carry through it tankers with a deadweight of up to 150 thousand tons (on completion of the second stage - up to 250 thousand tons) and cargo ships with a deadweight of up to 370 thousand tons.

In 2005, a new reconstruction of the Suez Canal began. The reconstruction plan includes deepening the channel, which will allow more than 90% of the existing international merchant fleet to pass through the canal. Since 2010, supertankers with a displacement of up to 360 thousand tons will be able to navigate the canal. Today, the length of the canal itself is 162.25 km, with sea approaches from Port Said to Port Taufiq - 190.25 km. Width at a depth of 11 meters is 200-210 m. Depth along the fairway is 22.5 m.

A modern symbol of the United States, the Statue of Liberty was originally planned to be installed in Port Said under the name “The Light Of Asia,” but the then government of the country decided that transporting the structure from France and installing it was too expensive for the state.

Currently, about 10% of all global maritime transport occurs through the Suez Canal. On average, 48 ships pass through the Suez Canal per day, and the average transit time through the canal is about 14 hours.

According to existing rules, ships from all countries that are not at war with Egypt can pass through Suez. Operating rules prohibit the appearance of only ships with nuclear power plants.

Today, the Suez Canal is the main budget-generating project in Egypt. According to some experts, the canal provides the country with more funds than oil production, and much more than the rapidly developing tourism infrastructure allows today.

The operation of the canal is one of the main sources of foreign exchange earnings for the Egyptian treasury. According to some experts, the canal provides the country with more funds than oil production, and much more than the rapidly developing tourism infrastructure.

The monthly volume of fees for passage through the canal is $372 million.

In the 2007-2008 fiscal year, the Suez Canal brought Egypt more than $5 billion, which was a record figure in the history of the canal.

In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, shipping traffic on the Suez Canal fell by 8.2%, and Egypt's revenue from operating the canal fell by 7.2%. Experts explain this by the consequences of the global financial crisis, as well as by the actions of pirates off the coast of Somalia.

Construction of the Suez Canal.

Drawing of the Suez Canal (1881)

Maybe, back during the Twelfth Dynasty, Pharaoh Senusret III (BC - BC) laid from west to east a canal dug through Wadi Tumilat connecting the Nile to the Red Sea, for unhindered trade with Punt.

Later, the construction and restoration of the canal was carried out by the powerful Egyptian pharaohs Ramses II and Necho II.

Herodotus (II. 158) writes that Necho (609-594) began to build a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, but did not finish it.

The canal was completed around 500 BC by King Darius the First, the Persian conqueror of Egypt. In memory of this event, Darius erected granite steles on the banks of the Nile, including one near Carbet, 130 kilometers from Pie.

In the 3rd century BC. e. The canal was made navigable by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247). He is mentioned by Diodorus (I. 33. 11 -12) and Strabo (XVII. 1. 25), and is mentioned in the inscription on the stele from Pythos (16th year of the reign of Ptolemy). It began slightly higher up the Nile than the previous canal, in the area of Facussa. It is possible, however, that under Ptolemy the old canal was cleared, deepened and extended to the sea, supplying the lands of Wadi Tumilat with fresh water. The fairway was wide enough - two triremes could easily separate in it.

Its fixed capital was equal to 200 million francs (in this amount Lesseps calculated all the costs of the enterprise), divided into 400 thousand shares of 500 francs each; Said Pasha signed up for a significant part of them. The English government, with Palmerston at its head, fearing that the Suez Canal would lead to the liberation of Egypt from Turkish rule and to the weakening or loss of England's dominance over India, put all sorts of obstacles in the way of the enterprise, but had to yield to the energy of Lesseps , especially since his enterprise was patronized by Napoleon III and Said Pasha, and then (since 1863) by his heir, Ismail Pasha.

The technical difficulties were enormous. I had to work under the scorching sun, in a sandy desert completely devoid of fresh water. At first, the company had to use up to 1,600 camels just to deliver water to workers; but by 1863 she had completed a small freshwater canal from the Nile, which ran approximately in the same direction as the ancient canals (the remains of which were used in some places), and was intended not for navigation, but solely for the delivery of fresh water - first to workers, then and the settlements that were to arise along the canal. This freshwater canal runs from Zakazik on the Nile east to Ismailia, and thence southeast along the sea canal to Suez; channel width 17 m on the surface, 8 m on the bottom; its depth on average is only 2¼ m, in some places even much less. Its discovery made the work easier, but still the mortality rate among workers was high. Workers were provided by the Egyptian government, but European workers also had to be used (in total, from 20 to 40 thousand people worked on construction).

The 200 million francs determined according to Lesseps's original project soon ran out, especially due to the enormous expenses on bribery at the courts of Said and Ismail, on widespread advertising in Europe, on the costs of representing Lesseps himself and other bigwigs of the company. It was necessary to make a new bond issue of 166,666,500 francs, then others, so that the total cost of the canal by 1872 reached 475 million (by 1892 - 576 million). In the six-year period in which Lesseps promised to complete the work, it was not possible to build the canal. The excavation work was carried out using forced labor from Egypt's poor (in the early stages) and took 11 years.

The northern section through the swamp and Lake Manzala was completed first, then the flat section to Lake Timsah. From here the excavation went to two huge depressions - the long-dried Bitter Lakes, the bottom of which was 9 meters below sea level. After filling the lakes, the builders moved to the end southern section.

The canal officially opened to navigation on November 17, 1869. On the occasion of the opening of the canal, the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi was commissioned to perform the opera Aida, the first production of which took place on December 24, 1871 at the Cairo Opera House.

One of the first travelers in the 19th century.

Economic and strategic importance of the canal

The canal had an immediate and invaluable impact on world trade. Six months earlier, the First Transcontinental Railroad had been put into operation, and the entire world could now be circumnavigated in record time. The canal played an important role in the expansion and further colonization of Africa. External debts forced Ismail Pasha, who succeeded Said Pasha, to sell his share in the canal to Great Britain in 1875. The General Suez Canal Company essentially became an Anglo-French enterprise, and Egypt was excluded from both the management of the canal and the profits. England became the actual owner of the canal. This position was further strengthened after it occupied Egypt in 1882.

Present tense

The Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA) reported that at the end of 2009, 17,155 ships passed through the canal, which is 20% less than in 2009 (21,170 ships). For the Egyptian budget, this meant a reduction in revenues from the operation of the canal from 5.38 billion US dollars in pre-crisis 2008 to 4.29 billion US dollars in 2009.

According to the head of the Canal Authority, Ahmad Fadel, 17,799 ships passed through the Suez Canal in 2011, which is 1.1 percent less than the year before. At the same time, the Egyptian authorities earned $5.22 billion from the transit of ships (456 million dollars more than in 2010).

In December 2011, Egyptian authorities announced that tariffs for cargo transit, which have not changed over the past three years, will increase by three percent from March 2012.

According to 2009 data, about 10% of the world's maritime traffic passes through the canal. The passage through the canal takes about 14 hours. On average, 48 ships pass through the canal per day.

Connection between banks

Since April 1980, a road tunnel has been operating in the area of the city of Suez, passing under the bottom of the Suez Canal, connecting Sinai and continental Africa. In addition to the technical excellence that made it possible to create such a complex engineering project, this tunnel attracts with its monumentality, is of great strategic importance and is rightfully considered a landmark of Egypt.

The opening of the Suez Canal was attended by the Empress of France Eugenie (wife of Napoleon III), the Emperor of Austria-Hungary Franz Joseph I with the Minister-President of the Hungarian government Andrássy, the Dutch prince and princess, and the Prussian prince. Never before has Egypt known such celebrations and received so many distinguished European guests. The celebration lasted seven days and nights and cost Khedive Ismail 28 million gold francs. And only one point of the celebration program was not fulfilled: the famous Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi did not have time to finish the opera “Aida” commissioned for this occasion, the premiere of which was supposed to enrich the opening ceremony of the channel. Instead of the premiere, a large gala ball was held in Port Said.

Notes

Literature

Dementyev I. A. Suez Canal / Ed. acad. L. N. Ivanova. - Ed. 2nd. - M.: Geographgiz, 1954. - 72 p. - (At the world map). - 50,000 copies.(region) (1st ed. - M.: Geographgiz, 1952. 40 p.)

Links

V. V. Vodovozov// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
The Suez Canal is 140 years old: the story of the creation of a 19th-century legend. RIA NEWS (November 17, 2009). Archived from the original on May 19, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2009.

(Arabic: قناة السويس, Qanā al-Suways) is a shipping canal in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, allowing trade between Europe and Asia by a short route, rather than bypassing Africa or transporting goods overland. The canal was opened in November 1869. It runs between Port Said in the north and Suez in the south, 162.5 km apart, passing near the city of Ismailia in between. The greatest depth of the canal is about 20 m. It is the busiest international maritime shipping corridor in the world. The canal has no locks: sea water is freely channeled into the Great Bitter Lake from the Red Sea, replacing evaporated water, while there is practically no current in the section between the Mediterranean Sea and the Great Bitter Lake. The canal is owned by the Arab Republic of Egypt and operated by the state-owned Suez Canal Authority. Officially, the canal's navigation is open to all states and is regulated by the Suez Canal Convention, although in reality in some cases the passage of ships was selectively or completely prohibited.

Story

We now know of two ancient canals running from west to east between the Red Sea and the Nile Delta, which facilitated navigation between them. A smaller canal was built during the reign of Pharaoh Senusret III or Ramesses II. The larger later canal was built during the reign of Pharaoh Necho II, it was laid slightly to the south and included part of the first canal.

2nd millennium BC

During the reign of the XII Dynasty pharaoh Senusret III (1878 - 1839 BC), the Nile was connected to the Red Sea by the Wadi Tumilat corridor, in a direction from west to east, becoming fully navigable during the floods of the Nile. This allowed direct trade with Punt (now the Somali Peninsula) and, indirectly, connected the Red and Mediterranean seas (at that time the Red Sea reached the Great Bitter Lake and Timsa Lake in the north). This canal was opened in early 1860, during the construction of the Ismailia freshwater canal, and passed the ancient Egyptian cities of Avaris, Bubast and Pithom.

Much evidence indicates that this canal was in use for at least several centuries. Thus, a bas-relief from the reign of Pharaoh Hashepsut, dated approximately 1470 BC, depicts the return of a sea expedition from Punt. These data indicate, in particular, the existence at that time of a shipping connection between the Nile and the Red Sea. Other evidence also points to the existence of the canal in the 13th century BC, during the reign of Ramesses II.

Restoration of the canal during the reigns of Necho II, Darius I and Ptolemy

Later, this waterway fell into disrepair and, according to Herodotus's History, it was only around 600 BC, during the reign of Pharaoh Necho II, that attempts were made to restore the canal. The work took place along the old channel between the cities of Bubast and Pit or between the Heropolitan Gulf and the Red Sea. However, Necho never saw the completion of this project until his death.

According to Herodotus, about 120 thousand people died during construction, although modern researchers consider this data to be many times higher. According to Pliny the Elder, during the time of Necho, about 92 km of the canal bed was laid, which approximately corresponds to the distance by the valley from Bubast to the Great Bitter Lake. According to Herodotus, the length of the canal was more than 1000 stadia (184 km), probably should be considered as the total distance from the Nile to the Red Sea at that time.

After the death of Necho II, work was stopped. According to Herodotus, this came from the received prophecy of an oracle that the enemies of the country would be able to use the canal.

Necho II's project was finally completed during the reign of the Persian king Darius I, who conquered Egypt. The work carried out was even greater than previously planned, since during the time of Darius I the natural water passage that existed between the Heropolitan (Suez) Gulf and the Red Sea near the Egyptian city of Shaluf (south of the Great Bitter Lake) silted up and required clearing.

An inscription on a pillar at Pitom says that in 270 or 269 BC. the canal was restored again by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, indicating some period of disuse of the canal. At Arsinoe, Ptolemy built a shipping lock between the Gulf of Heripolis and the Red Sea, which allowed the passage of ships, but prevented salt water from the Red Sea from mixing with the fresh water of the canal.

Regression of the Red Sea and siltation of the Nile

The Red Sea has undergone marked regression over the centuries, its coastline slowly moving further and further south from Lake Timsa and the Great Bitter Lake until it reached its modern shores. Combined with the accumulation of silt by the Nile, maintenance and repair of the Ptolemaic canal became increasingly costly with each passing century.

Two hundred years after the construction of the Ptolemaic canal, during the melting of Cleopatra, the shipping canal no longer operated due to the siltation of the Peluska estuary.

Under Arab rule

Over the next 1000 years, the Suez Canal was abandoned again and then reconstructed again, although it is unknown when - various sources indicate that this may have happened during the reign of Trajan, Omar ibn Khattab, or at other times. In 750, the canal was closed by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur to prevent infidels from entering Arabia.

Al-Hakim claimed that under him the canal was repaired and it operated from Old Cairo to Suez. Already in the year 1000, the canal was again silted up by the annual floods of the Nile and worked only during floods. It is believed that the canal was finally closed in 1811 on the orders of Muhammad Ali.

Napoleon's exploration of the ancient canal

Beginning in late 1798, due to Napoleon Bonaparte's interest in finding the remains of the ancient waterway, archaeologists, other scientists, cartographers and engineers were sent to the canal area to conduct research. Their findings, recorded in the work Description de l'Égypte, include detailed maps describing the discoveries of the route of the ancient canal north of the Red Sea, and then westward to the Nile.

Later, in the second half of the 19th century, French cartographers reported the discovery of the remains of another ancient north-south channel on the eastern shore of Lake Timsy, which ended at the northern shore of the Great Bitter Lake. The second channel followed the ancient coastline of the Red Sea and further north from Lake Timsa. But by that time it was unknown when these two canals were built and by whom.

Napoleon envisaged the construction of another, modern canal, which should run from north to south, between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. But his project was launched for some time due to the fact that, after a preliminary survey, the difference in levels between the Red and Mediterranean Seas was erroneously estimated, estimating it at 10 m (in reality, the Mediterranean Sea is only 1.2 m higher than the Red Sea), through which the construction of the canal required would have been quite affordable gateways at that time.

Although by that time the ancient canal from Babatu to the Red Sea was no longer navigable, until 1861 the water still reached Kassassinu.

Newest construction of the Suez Canal

In 1854 - 1856, Ferdinand de Lesseps received a concession from the Viceroy of Egypt, Mohammed Said Pasha, to create a company that would build a shipping canal open to ships from all countries. Under the terms of the concession, the company had to operate the canal for 99 years from the date of opening, after which it was to be transferred to the Egyptian government. Austrian engineer Luigi Negrelli was hired to design it. De Lesseps used his friendship with Said, which he had gained as a French diplomat in the 1830s. Following the concession, the Suez Canal Company (French: Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez) was founded on December 15, 1858.

The work took almost 11 years using forced labor from Egyptian workers. Some sources indicate that over 30 thousand people worked on the construction of the canal.

Britain soon recognized the canal as an important trade route and perceived the French project as a threat to its geopolitical and financial interests. The British Empire officially condemned forced labor and sent armed Bedouin troops to provoke a revolt among the workers. As a result, the Viceroy stopped using slave labor and temporarily suspended construction.

At first, international public opinion was skeptical of the project. Shares of the Suez Canal Company were not sold abroad; England, the USA, Austria and Russia were eager to buy them. However, all shares of the company were quickly sold in France.

The canal opened to navigation on November 17, 1869, despite numerous technical, political and financial problems that resulted in the final cost being more than double the original estimate.

The opening of the canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade. Combined with the American transcontinental railroad, which was completed six months before the canal, the canal allowed world trade to occur in record time. The opening of the canal also played an important role in the expansion of European influence and colonization of Africa. External debts forced Ishmael Pasha, Said Pasha's successor, to sell his country's share of the canal for £4 billion to Great Britain in 1875, but France still remained the main shareholder.

The Convention of Constantinople of 1888 declared the canal a neutral zone under British protection; British troops occupied the area along the canal during the Egyptian Civil War of 1882. In 1915, these troops repelled an attack on the canal by Ottoman troops. According to the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, Great Britain retained control of the canal. In 1951, Egypt abandoned the treaty, and in 1954 Britain decided to withdraw its troops, which was completed in July 1956.

Channel usage history

The history of international use of the canal in wartime included a ban on passage by Spanish warships during the Spanish-American War of 1898, permission for passage by a Russian squadron during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, and by Italian ships during the Italian intervention in Ethiopia in 1935-1936. . The canal was theoretically open to all belligerents during World Wars I and II, but Allied naval superiority made it difficult for German ships to use the canal. Since the armed confrontation between Israel and the Arab countries in 1949, Egypt has denied the use of the canal to Israelis and all ships from those countries that traded with Israel.

Suez crisis

After Britain and the United States withdrew their promises to support the construction of the Aswan High Dam due to Egypt's orientation towards the Soviet Union, in 1956 (13 years before the terms of the concession would give the entire canal to Egypt), Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal, intending to finance the dam project with revenues from the canal. At the same time, they closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships and stopped Israeli trade through the port of Eilat in the Gulf of Aqaba. This provoked the Suez crisis - Great Britain, France and Israel launched a military strike on Egypt. According to the plan, Israel was to attack Egypt by land, England and France were to help with the air force, and later send troops to establish control over the canal.

The plan was partially implemented, but the conflict received a huge international response, and many other countries tried to intervene diplomatically to inflict large casualties. To end the war, Canadian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Lester Bowles Pearson proposed the creation of a United Nations peacekeeping force to ensure access to the canal for all sides, and Israel should withdraw its troops from the Sinai Peninsula. On November 4, 1956, the UN General Assembly voted by a majority vote in favor of the Pearson peacekeeping resolution, which gave UN peacekeepers a mandate to remain in the Sinai Peninsula if Egypt and Israel agreed to their deployment. The US also put economic and financial pressure on the British government, which also agreed to withdraw its troops. For this plan, Pearson was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

As a result of the deliberate scuttling of ships ordered by Nasser to make it impossible for coalition forces to use the canal, the canal was closed until April 1957, when, according to the Pearson Resolution, it was cleared with the help of UN forces and opened to shipping. In 1958, Egypt agreed to pay compensation to England and France for the entire 12 years that remained until the end of the concession.

Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973

In May 1967, President Nasser ordered UN peacekeeping forces to liberate the Sinai Peninsula, including the Suez Canal Zone. Despite Israeli protest at the UN, the peacekeepers were withdrawn and the Egyptian army took up positions on the Israeli border, once again closing the canal and the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships.

These actions were key factors in Israel's decision to launch a preemptive strike on Egypt in June 1967 and seize the Sinai Peninsula to the Suez Canal. After the Six-Day War of 1967, the canal was closed until June 5, 1975, due to the fact that both countries controlled different banks of the canal and could block shipping. As a result, fourteen cargo ships known as the "Yellow Fleet" remained trapped in the canal for eight years. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the Egyptian army crossed the canal into the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula, although it was quickly surrounded by Israeli forces, and its destruction was prevented only by the signing of a ceasefire. Much of the wreckage of military equipment destroyed during this conflict remains along the banks of the canal today.

In 1975, UN peacekeeping troops were reintroduced to the canal area, and the canal itself was opened. When the peacekeepers' stay expired in 1979, despite requests to extend the period from both Israel and Egypt, this was not done due to the USSR's veto in the Security Council. Under the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, however, it was necessary to create an international force to ensure peace, which was done without the participation of the UN (the so-called Multinational Force and Observers). Since then, all ships, including Israeli ones, have passed through the Suez Canal without interference.

Channel Description

The canal crosses a low-lying area of sandy desert and follows a route where the formation of the channel was facilitated by lakes Manzala, Timsakh, Bolshoye Gorkoye and Maloe Gorkoye. The water surface of both Bitter Lakes lay below sea level, but during construction they had to be excavated, since their depth was not enough for the needs of the canal. On the 38 km section from Port Said to El Qantara, the route passes through Lake Manzala, which is a mid-water lagoon of the Mediterranean Sea. The nature of the soil in the Suez Canal area made it easy and quick to carry out excavation work, and thanks to the flat terrain there was no need to build locks here. Drinking water in the area of the Isthmus of Suez is supplied from the Nile by the Ismailia freshwater canal, which begins just north of Cairo. The Suez Canal zone is connected to the central regions of the country by a network of railways leaving from the cities of Port Said, Ismailia and Port Tawfik. Another railway is sent along the western bank parallel to the canal along its entire length.

Characteristics

The maximum permissible draft depth of a vessel is 18.90 m. This applies to ships with a width of up to 50 m. The permissible draft depth decreases for large ships gradually to 12.20 m for ships with a width of 77.49 m. The maximum permissible displacement of ships for passage through the canal is 150 thousand tons. After dredging, which is planned to be completed by 2010, the depth of permissible draft will increase to 20.12 m. A feasibility study is also being developed for further deepening of the channel to 21.95, which will allow a supertanker to pass through the channel with full load.

Allowable maximum width:

77.49 m, after special request to Suez Canal Authority
74.75 m with wind speed less than 10 m/s
64.0 m without any restrictions.
The length of the vessels is not limited. The permissible maximum height is 68 m (due to the fact that the height of the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge is 70 m).

The canal has a land length of 162.25 km (Port Said - Ismailia: 78.50 km; Ismailia - Suez: 83.75 km). The distance from the roadstead to the entrance to the canal on the northern side is 19.5 km and 8.5 km on the southern side, from the exit from the port of Suez. Thus, the total length of the canal is 190.25 km.

Communication between coasts

Communication from north to south:

The Suez Canal Bridge or the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge is a high road bridge near the city of Al Qantara. The bridge has a height of 70 m above the surface of the canal and was built with help from the Japanese government, with some of the work carried out by the construction company PentaOcean.
Al Ferdan Railway Bridge is a bridge located 20 km north of Ismailia, its construction was completed in 2001. It is now the longest circulating city in the world, with a span of 340 m. The preliminary city was destroyed in 1967 during the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The pipelines under the canal supplying drinking water to the Sinai Peninsula cross the canal 57 km north of Suez, at a point 30°27"N 32°21"E.
The Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel is a tunnel south of the Great Bitter Lake, built in 1983. Due to problems with leaks in the tunnel, in the period 1992 - 1995, a new waterproof tunnel was built next to the old one.
The high-voltage line across the Suez Canal was built in 1999.
The canal has no locks through flat terrain and minor differences between sea levels at its ends. It has one navigable fairway. On a typical day, three caravans pass through the canal, two from the south and one from the north. The first caravan travels along the southern part of the canal in the early morning hours and reaches the Great Bitter Lake, where the ships stop to await the passage of the southern caravan. The northern caravan passes the second southern caravan near the city of Al-Qantara. The crossing takes 11 to 16 hours at a speed of about 8 knots (15 km/h), a slow speed designed to prevent waves from ships from eroding the banks of the canal.

About 7.5% of the world's sea freight traffic is carried through the canal today. Revenue from the channel from July 2005 to May 2006 amounted to US$3.2 billion. In 2007, 18,193 ships passed through the canal. The average cost of passage of one vessel in 2007 was about 150 thousand dollars, and in 2008 it was increased to 160 thousand dollars.

Currently, some supertankers are too large to pass through the canal, and some are forced to offload some of their cargo onto canal-owned tankers and reload it at the other end of the canal. The canal expansion, scheduled to be completed before the end of 2009, could solve this problem by allowing the passage of any fully loaded supertankers.

Environmental impact

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Moreover, the level of the Red Sea is approximately 1.2 m higher than the level of the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, and the height of tides in the Red Sea is also higher. Thus, the canal serves as a strait through which, during high tides, portions of water flow from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The Bitter Lakes, natural, highly saline lakes that became part of the canal, held back the northward migration of Red Sea species for several decades, but their salinity gradually became equal to that of the Red Sea, and the barrier to migration was removed. As a result, various organisms from the Red Sea began to colonize the Eastern Mediterranean. The Red Sea is saltier and poorer in nutrients than the Atlantic Ocean, so Red Sea species generally have an advantage over Atlantic species in the saltier and nutrient-poor Mediterranean Sea. As a result, Red Sea species actively colonize the Mediterranean Sea, displacing the local biota, while in the opposite direction the process practically does not occur. This phenomenon is called the “Lesseps migration” (named after Ferdinand de Lesseps) or the “Eritrean invasion”. The construction of the Aswan Dam across the Nile in the 1960s reduced the flow of nutrient-rich fresh Nile water to the eastern Mediterranean, further bringing sea conditions closer to those of the Red Sea, worsening invasion by foreign species.

Invasive Red Sea species introduced into the Eastern Mediterranean have already become an important part of the Mediterranean ecosystem, pushing many endemic species to the brink of extinction. Currently, about 300 Red Sea species have already been identified as permanent residents of the Mediterranean Sea; probably a number remain unidentified. The canal expansion work being carried out by the Egyptian government is causing significant concern to conservation organizations because it is certain to worsen invasive Red Sea species.

In parallel with the Suez Canal, a few years before its construction, the Ismailia Freshwater Canal was built from the Model Nile, with two branches to supply water to Suez and Port Said, with the aim of supplying water for the construction and development of settlements along its future course.

See everything about construction

The Suez Canal (Arabic: ???? ??????, ?? Qana al-Suways) is a navigable lockless canal in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The canal zone is considered a conditional border between two continents, Africa and Eurasia. The shortest waterway between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea region in the Atlantic Ocean (an alternative route is 8 thousand km longer). The Suez Canal opened to navigation on November 17, 1869. Main ports: Port Said and Suez.

Located west of the Sinai Peninsula, it is 163 kilometers long and 20 meters deep. The canal is located in Egypt between Port Said (Bur Sa"id) on the Mediterranean Sea and Suez (al-Suways) on the Red Sea. On the eastern side of the canal opposite Port Said is Port Fuad (bur Fuad), where the Suez Canal Authority is located. On the eastern side of the canal opposite Suez is Port Tawfik (bur tawfik). On the canal, in the area of Crocodile Lake (Timsah), is the third largest city in Egypt and a major industrial center - Ismailia.

The canal allows water transport to pass in both directions between Europe and Asia without going around Africa. Before the opening of the canal, transportation was carried out by unloading ships and overland transport between the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

The canal consists of two parts - north and south of the Great Bitter Lake, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea.

According to the Suez Canal Administration, revenues from its operation in 2010 amounted to $4.5 billion. USA, making it the second most important source of budget revenue after tourism, which brought in $13 billion. In 2011, revenues already amounted to $5.22 billion, with 17,799 ships passing through the canal, which is 1.1 percent less than the previous year.

Perhaps as early as the Twelfth Dynasty, Pharaoh Senwosret III (1878 BC - 1888 BC) created a west-to-east canal dug through the Wadi Tumilat, connecting the Nile with the Red Sea, for unhindered trade with Punt.

Later, the construction and restoration of the canal was carried out by the powerful Egyptian pharaohs Ramses II and Necho II.

Herodotus (II. 158) writes that Necho (609-594) began to build a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, but did not finish it.

In the 3rd century BC. e. The canal was made navigable by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247). He is mentioned by Diodorus (I. 33. 11–12) and Strabo (XVII. 1. 25), and is mentioned in the inscription on the stele from Pythos (16th year of the reign of Ptolemy). It began slightly higher up the Nile than the previous canal, in the area of Facussa. It is possible, however, that under Ptolemy the old canal was cleared, deepened and extended to the sea, supplying the lands of Wadi Tumilat with fresh water. The fairway was wide enough - two triremes could easily separate in it.

Emperor Trajan (98-117) deepened the canal and increased its navigability. It was known as the Trajan River and provided navigation, but was then abandoned again.

In 776, by order of Caliph Mansur, it was finally filled up so as not to divert trade routes from the center of the Caliphate.

In 1569, by order of the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed Sokollu, a plan was developed to restore the canal, but it was not implemented. He entrusted the preliminary research to a special commission headed by engineer Lepere. The commission erroneously concluded that the water level of the Red Sea is 9.9 m higher than the water level in the Mediterranean Sea, which would not allow the construction of a canal without locks. According to Leper's project, it was supposed to go from the Red Sea to the Nile partly along the old route, cross the Nile near Cairo and end in the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria. Leper considered it impossible to reach particularly significant depths; its channel would be unsuitable for deep-draft vessels. The Leper Commission estimated the cost of digging at 30-40 million francs. The project failed not because of technical or financial difficulties, but because of political events; it was completed only at the end of 1800, when Napoleon was already in Europe and finally abandoned the hope of conquering Egypt. Accepting Leper's report on December 6, 1800, he said: “This is a great thing, but I am not able to carry it out at the present time; perhaps the Turkish government will someday take it up, thereby creating glory for itself and strengthening the existence of the Turkish Empire.”

In 1841, English officers who carried out surveys on the isthmus proved the fallacy of Leper's calculations regarding the water level in the two seas - calculations that Laplace and the mathematician Fourier had previously protested against, based on theoretical considerations. In 1846, partly under the patronage of Metternich, the international “Societe d’etudes du canal de Suez” was formed, in which the most prominent figures were the engineers Frenchman Talabo, Englishman Stephenson and Austrian Negrelli. Luigi Negrelli, on the basis of new, independent research, developed a new project, which, however, in general terms was a repetition of the old one, Leperovsky. Around the same time, the French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, without carrying out new independent research, but relying only on the research of his predecessors, came up with the idea of constructing a canal completely differently - so that it would be an “artificial Bosphorus” directly between the two seas, sufficient for the passage of the deepest waters. ships.

In 1855, Ferdinand de Lesseps received concessions from Said Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt, whom de Lesseps had met as a French diplomat in the 1830s. Said Pasha approved the creation of a company for the purpose of constructing a sea canal open to ships of all countries.

In the same 1855, Lesseps achieved the approval of the firman from the Turkish Sultan, but only in 1859 was he able to found a company in Paris. In the same year, construction of the canal began, led by the General Suez Canal Company created by Lesseps. The Egyptian government received 44% of all shares, France - 53% and 3% were acquired by other countries. Under the terms of the concession, shareholders were entitled to 74% of profits, Egypt - 15%, and the company's founders - 10%.

The technical difficulties were enormous. I had to work under the scorching sun, in a sandy desert completely devoid of fresh water. At first, the company had to use up to 1,600 camels just to deliver water to workers; but by 1863 she had completed a small freshwater canal from the Nile, which ran approximately in the same direction as the ancient canals (the remains of which were used in some places), and was intended not for navigation, but solely for the delivery of fresh water - first to workers, then and the settlements that were to arise along the canal. This freshwater canal runs from Zakazik on the Nile east to Ismailia, and from there southeast, along the sea canal, to Suez; channel width 17 m on the surface, 8 m on the bottom; its depth on average is only 2 1/4 m, in some places even much less. Its discovery made the work easier, but still the mortality rate among workers was high. Workers were provided by the Egyptian government, but European workers also had to be used (in total, from 20 to 40 thousand people worked on construction).

The canal had an immediate and invaluable impact on world trade. Six months earlier, the First Transcontinental Railroad had been put into operation, and the entire world could now be circumnavigated in record time. The canal played an important role in the expansion and further colonization of Africa. External debts forced Ismail Pasha, who replaced Said Pasha, to sell his share in the canal to Great Britain in 1875. The General Suez Canal Company essentially became an Anglo-French enterprise, and Egypt was excluded from both the management of the canal and the profits. England became the actual owner of the canal. This position was further strengthened after it occupied Egypt in 1882.

In 1888, an International Convention was signed in Istanbul (Constantinople) with the aim of creating a specific system designed to guarantee free navigation through the canal to all states.

During the First and Second World Wars, shipping on the canal was actually regulated by Great Britain.

On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the channel. This led to the invasion of British, French and Israeli troops and the start of the week-long Suez War in 1956. The canal was partially destroyed, some ships were sunk, and as a result, shipping was closed until April 24, 1957, until the canal was cleared with the help of the UN. The United Nations Peacekeeping Force (UNEF) was introduced to maintain the status of the Sinai Peninsula and the Suez Canal as neutral territories.

After the Six-Day War of 1967, the canal was closed again. During the next Arab-Israeli War in 1973, the Egyptian army successfully crossed the canal; Subsequently, the Israeli army carried out a “response force.” After the end of the war, the canal was cleared by the USSR Navy and opened for use on June 5, 1975.

The canal does not have locks due to the lack of sea level differences and elevations. The canal allows the passage of loaded ships with a displacement of up to 240,000 tons, a height of up to 68 meters and a width of up to 77.5 meters (under certain conditions). The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Ahmed Ali Fadel, said that the next phase of dredging work has been completed, and the depth of the canal is 66 feet (20.1 m). In the future, it is planned to provide passage for supertankers with a draft of up to 22 meters. Currently, supertankers can transfer some of the cargo to canal-owned ships and receive it back at the other end of the canal. The canal has one fairway and several areas for ships to diverge.

The Suez Canal is one of Egypt's main sources of income, along with oil production and tourism.

The Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA) reported that at the end of 2009, 17,155 ships passed through the canal, which is 20% less than in 2008 (21,170 ships). For the Egyptian budget, this meant a reduction in revenues from the operation of the canal from 5.38 billion US dollars in pre-crisis 2008 to 4.29 billion US dollars in 2009.

In December 2011, Egyptian authorities announced that tariffs for cargo transit, which have not changed over the past three years, will increase by three percent from March 2012.

According to 2009 data, about 10% of the world's maritime traffic passes through the canal. The passage through the canal takes about 14 hours. On average, 48 ships pass through the canal per day.

Since April 1980, a road tunnel has been operating near the city of Suez, passing under the bottom of the Suez Canal, connecting Sinai and continental Africa. In addition to the technical excellence that made it possible to create such a complex engineering project, this tunnel attracts with its monumentality, is of great strategic importance and is rightfully considered a landmark of Egypt.

In 1998, a power transmission line was built over the canal in Suez. The line supports, standing on both banks, have a height of 221 meters and are located 152 meters from each other.

On October 9, 2001, a new bridge was opened in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak on the highway connecting the cities of Port Said and Ismailia. The opening ceremony of the bridge was attended by then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Before the opening of the Millau Viaduct, this structure was the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world. The height of the bridge is 70 meters. Construction lasted 4 years, one Japanese and two Egyptian construction companies took part in it.