Suez Canal

A photograph of the Suez Canal taken by astronauts aboard the Apollo 7 spacecraft, showing the canal stretching from the Gulf of Suez (the dark area at the bottom of the picture) to the Mediterranean. The broad expanse to the right of the canal is the Sinai Desert, and to the left is Egypt.

Port Said, the Egyptian port at the N entrance to the Suez Canal, c. 1880.

The Suez Canal, Egypt, photographed in 1895. The Canal was opened in 1865, and links the Mediterranean and Red Seas. There are no locks along the length of the Canal, because these two bodies of water are at roughly the same level.

Artificial waterway from Port Said to Suez, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas; 160 km/100 mi long and with a minimum width of 60 m/197 ft. The canal was built at sea level, with no locks, and can accommodate vessels of up to 150,000 tons. It separates Africa from Asia and provides the shortest eastwards sea route from Europe. It was opened in 1869, nationalized in 1956, blocked by Egypt during the Arab-Israeli War in 1967, and not reopened until 1975.

The French Suez Canal Company was formed in 1858 to execute the scheme of Ferdinand de Lesseps. The canal was opened in 1869, and in 1875 British prime minister Disraeli acquired a major shareholding for Britain from the khedive of Egypt. The 1888 Convention of Constantinople opened it to all nations. The Suez Canal was administered by a company with offices in Paris controlled by a council of 33 (10 of them British) until 1956 when it was forcibly nationalized by President Nasser of Egypt. The Damietta port complex on the Mediterranean at the mouth of the canal was inaugurated in 1986. The port is designed to handle 16 million tonnes of cargo.