Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is a man-made, sea-level waterway in Egypt that cuts across the Isthmus of Suez, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. This 193.3-kilometer channel serves as the boundary between Africa and Asia, separating the Sinai Peninsula from the rest of Egypt, and is a vital trade route connecting Europe and Asia.

The idea for the canal was pursued by French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, who formed the Compagnie de Suez in 1858 specifically to build it. Construction ran from 1859 to 1869, and the canal officially opened on November 17, 1869. By providing a direct path between the North Atlantic and northern Indian Oceans via the Mediterranean and Red Seas, it allows vessels to bypass the South Atlantic and southern Indian Oceans. This shortcut reduces the journey from the Arabian Sea to London by roughly 8,900 kilometers—cutting travel time to about 10 days at 20 knots or 8 days at 24 knots. The canal runs from Port Said in the north to Port Tewfik at the city of Suez in the south. In 2021, over 20,600 ships passed through it, averaging 56 per day.

Originally, the canal was a single-lane waterway with passing areas at the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake. Based on plans by Alois Negrelli, it had no locks, allowing seawater to flow freely. Generally, water north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer; south of the lakes, the current shifts with the tides at Suez.

The canal was owned by the Egyptian government, but a concessionary company with European shareholders—mostly British and French—operated it until July 1956. That month, President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal, triggering the Suez Crisis in October and November of that year. Today, the state-owned Suez Canal Authority operates and maintains it. Under the Convention of Constantinople, the canal is open "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag." Still, it has been a strategic military chokepoint and naval shortcut. Navies with bases on both the Mediterranean and Red Seas—notably Egypt and Israel—have a particular stake in it. Egypt closed the canal at the start of the Six-Day War on June 5, 1967, and it remained shut for eight years, reopening on June 5, 1975.

In 2014, the Egyptian government began expanding and widening the Ballah Bypass over 35 kilometers to speed up transit times. This project aimed to nearly double the canal’s daily capacity from 49 to 97 ships. Funded by interest-bearing investment certificates sold only to Egyptian entities and individuals, it cost LE 59.4 billion (US$9 billion). The Suez Canal Authority officially opened a new side channel in 2016, located on the northern side of the canal’s east extension. This channel serves the East Terminal, allowing vessels to berth and unberth without disrupting convoys—something that was impossible before, since the terminal sits directly on the canal.

Ancient predecessors to the Suez Canal existed as west–east canals linking the Nile to the Red Sea. A small canal may have been built under Senusret II or Ramesses II. Another, likely incorporating part of the first, was constructed during the reign of Necho II (610–595 BCE), but the only fully functional ancient canal was engineered and completed by Darius I (522–486 BCE). James Henry Breasted attributed the earliest known attempt to the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, near the first cataract at Aswan, with completion under Senusret III (1878–1839 BCE) of the Twelfth Dynasty. The legendary Sesostris (possibly Senusret II or Senusret III) may have built the Canal of the Pharaohs, joining the Nile to the Red Sea around 1848 BCE, creating a navigable irrigation channel during flood season that led into the dry Wadi Tumilat valley. (In ancient times, the Red Sea may have extended north to the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah.) Aristotle wrote that a king tried to dig a canal but stopped because the sea was higher than the land, fearing the saltwater would spoil the Nile. Strabo and Pliny the Elder also recorded attempts by Sesostris, Darius, and Ptolemy II, who dug a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep, and about 35 miles long to the Bitter Lakes. In the 20th century, a northward extension of Darius I’s canal was discovered, running from Lake Timsah to the Ballah Lakes, dated to Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. Reliefs of Hatshepsut’s Punt expedition (1470 BCE) show seagoing vessels, suggesting a navigable link between the Red Sea and the Nile existed then. Recent excavations at Wadi Gawasis hint that Egypt’s maritime trade may have started from that area.