Suez Canal

The Suez Canal runs between Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, and Suez on the Red Sea. It allows ships to travel between Europe and Asia without having to go the way around Africa, reducing the journey by approximately 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi).

The Suez Canal is 193.30 km (120.11 mi) long, including its northern and southern access channels and, at its narrowest point, 300 m wide (984 ft). 

SuezCanal-EO

The Suez Canal has a predecessor, the Canal of the Pharaohs, linking the River Nile to the Red Sea in ancient times. The completion date is uncertain and it was closed in 767 AD.

French engineers started building the Suez Canal on April 25, 1859.  It took ten years to build the 100-mile route devised by Ferdinand de Lesseps and more than 1.5 million people were employed. The canal was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony on November 17, 1869.

Suez Canal, 1869

Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera Aida at the request of the khedive of Egypt to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal. Aida premiered on December 24, 1871, to great acclaim at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo, Egypt.

Ferdinand de Lesseps married his second wife, Louise-Hélène Autard de Bragard, on November 25, 1869. At the time of their wedding, Lesseps was 64 years old, while Louise-Hélène was just 21, resulting in a significant age difference of 43 years. Despite the age difference, their marriage was reportedly a happy and fulfilling one. They had twelve children together, eleven of whom survived to adulthood. 

Louise-Hélène, from a respected Mauritian family, brought a youthful energy and companionship to Lesseps' life, particularly during his later years when he faced financial and legal challenges related to the construction of the Suez Canal.

In 1875 an Egyptian financial crisis enabled British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli to buy 44% holding in Suez Canal Company for Britain and thus secured the country great influence in the running of Egypt.

By 1955, about two-thirds of Europe's oil passed through the Suez Canal.

Following the World Bank's refusal to fund building the Aswan Dam in 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.

Ferdinand de Lesseps' name was used in a speech by Gamal Nasser as the codeword to order the raiding of the Suez Canal Company's offices on July 26, 1956, the first step to its nationalization. In the course of the raid and seizure of the canal by Nasser, the statue of de Lesseps at the entrance of the Suez Canal was removed from its pedestal, to symbolize the end of European ownership of the waterway. The statue now stands in a small garden of the Port Fouad shipyard.

Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt to get back the Suez Canal. The initial Anglo-French assault took place on Port Said on November 5, 1956.

Smoke rises from oil tanks beside the Suez Canal hit during the initial Anglo-French assault

Despite being a military success and having minor losses, the Suez Crisis had so much political fallout that most historians consider it the end of Britain as a superpower.

The 1957 Monte Carlo Rally was cancelled because of a worldwide petrol shortage following the Suez crisis.

After working at Avis 1952-56 on an experimental car, designer Alexander Issigonis returned to what had now become British Motoring Corporation. In the wake of the Suez Crisis, which threatened oil supplies, he was asked to design and produce a small and economical car and the result was the Mini. 

After the Six Day War in 1967, the Suez Canal remained closed until June 5, 1975. 

Egyptian vehicles crossing the Suez Canal in1973, during the Yom Kippur War

A UN peacekeeping force has been stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1974, to avoid more wars.

In August 2014, construction was launched to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km (22 mi) to speed the canal's transit time. The expansion was planned to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.

The "New Suez Canal", as the expansion was dubbed, was opened with great fanfare in a ceremony on August 6, 2015.

The Suez Canal carries roughly 10 percent of worldwide shipping traffic.

Typically, it takes a ship 12 to 16 hours to transit the Suez Canal. 

USS America (CV-66), an American aircraft carrier in the Suez Canal