The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس‎ Qanāt al-Suwais) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened 17 November 1869, after 10 years of construction, it allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa thereby reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi). The northern terminus is Port Said; the southern terminus is Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Ismailia is on its west bank, 3 km (1.9 mi) from the half-way point. In 2012, 17,225 vessels traversed the canal (47 per day). When built, the canal was 164 km (102 mi) long and 8 m (26 ft) deep. After several enlargements, it is 193.30 km (120.11 mi) long, 24 m (79 ft) deep and 205 metres (673 ft) wide. It consists of the northern access channel of 22 km (14 mi), the canal itself of 162.25 km (100.82 mi) and the southern access channel of 9 km (5.6 mi). The canal is single-lane with passing places in the "Ballah By-Pass" and the Great Bitter Lake. It contains no locks; seawater flows freely through it. In general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. The current south of the lakes changes with the tide at Suez. The canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag." In August 2014, construction was launched to construct a second canal, the New Suez Canal, for half of the route of the canal, costing $8.4 billion, to increase the canal's capacity. Funding was arranged by issuing interest-bearing investment certificates exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals and the target amount was collected over only six working days. The expansion is expected to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. Construction of the project is expected to take a year. Nile–Red Sea Canal(s) Main article: Canal of the Pharaohs Ancient west–east canals were built to facilitate travel from the Nile river to the Red Sea. One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of Senusret IIor Ramesses II. Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first, was constructed under the reign of Necho II, but the only fully functional canal was engineered and completed by Darius I 2nd millennium BC The legendary Sesostris (likely either Pharaoh Senusret II or Senusret III of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt is suggested to have perhaps started work on an ancient canal joining the Nile with the Red Sea (1897 BC – 1839 BC). (It is said that in ancient times the Red Sea reached northward to the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah. In his Meteorology, Aristotle wrote: One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it. Strabo wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote: 165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes. In the second half of the 19th century, French cartographers discovered the remnants of an ancient north–south canal past the east side of Lake Timsah and ending near the north end of the Great Bitter Lake. This proved to be the celebrated canal made by the Persian king Darius I, as his stele commemorating its construction was found at the site. (This ancient, second canal may have followed a course along the shoreline of the Red Sea when it once extended north to Lake Timsah. In the 20th century the northward extension of this ancient canal was discovered, extending from Lake Timsah to the Ballah Lakes.This was dated to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt by extrapolating the dates of ancient sites along its course.

• published: 11 Jun 2015
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