What associations do you have for the word “Egypt”? Surely you immediately thought about the pyramids in Giza, camels, pharaohs, mummies and hot sand. Do you know that in the north-eastern part of Egypt is Port Said, near which the Suez Canal begins? When planning to visit Egypt, where there is such a famous resort as Sharm El Sheikh, and the equally popular Hurghada, you should definitely see this curious attraction.
The Suez Canal, the photo of which should be in the album of every self-respecting tourist who has visited Egypt, stretches like a straight blue arrow, starting from Port Said and ending with the
Gulf of Suez, which is located between the coast of Africa and the
Sinai Peninsula. In other words, this canal is a direct route from the Red to the Mediterranean Sea and serves as the generally accepted border between Africa and Asia. Its length is 168 km (taking into account the approach channels to its main channel), the width in places reaches 169 meters, and the depth allows vessels with a draft of more than 16 meters to freely pass between its shores, without worrying about possible shallow.
It is curious that the idea to dig a navigable canal from the banks of the Nile to the Red Sea came to mind even the ancient Egyptians over 32 thousand years ago, even when the pharaohs Seti I and Ramses II ruled. Some of the remaining old channel came in handy for bringing freshwater to the construction site - we are talking about the freshwater artery of Ismailia.
Around 500 BC Darius, the then king of Persia, after the conquest of Egypt again connected the Red and Mediterranean Seas. There is reason to believe that the Suez Canal of the time allowed two boats to sail next to each other.
Then came the turn of the Europeans. At the end of the XV century. the idea of a new channel haunted many merchants, in particular the Venetian merchants. The reason for this is the benefits of trade with India. Indian spices brought considerable profit, however, at that time there were only two ways to deliver them to Europe. The first, sea route, assumed a long journey bypassing the southern part of the African continent, and the second, land method, consisted of transporting goods on sand from the shores of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean coast. Both methods were extremely inconvenient. For several centuries they gathered strength and finally decided to act.
It is not known that more, eloquence, diplomat talent or entrepreneurial acumen, helped the Frenchman F. Lesseps convince the Egyptian government to give a “green light” to a new grandiose project. The implementation of the project took more than ten years. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of Egyptians waved picks and shovels - every month the government recruited sixty thousand people for construction work. European countries financed these works and, of course, they were also going to receive the majority of the income from the channel.
For shipping, the Suez Canal was opened in November 1869. 48 ships with 6 thousand passengers arrived at this solemn event in Port Said. Several years passed, economic problems began in Egypt, and England and France decided to take this opportunity: they bought from Egypt 15% of the income from using the channel. The profit of the Egyptians from ships passing the Suez Canal was reduced to zero. Such an outrage, of course, could not last long. In 1956, the Egyptian government returned the canal to state ownership, which angered the French and British. Still, such a tidbit disappeared! They did not want to come to terms with this decision and began military aggression against the Egyptians, connecting Israel for fidelity.
This international conflict lasted from the fall of 1965 to March 1967. Thanks to the determination of its citizens and the support of the USSR, Egypt was still able to protect its interests and after carrying out further improvements, starting in 1981, the Suez Canal began to work again on it ships began to pass, the draft of which reached 16 meters.