SUEZ CANAL
Joining of the Waters

J.M. Syken

Course Outline

In this course, we will undertake an in-depth investigation into the origins, need, design, construction, opening-to-traffic, maintenance, improvements, expansion, geopolitical concerns and operation of the Suez Canal, which joins the Red and Mediterranean Sea/s through the Isthmus of Suez. Our review will focus on the maritime (ship) canal, but will also highlight the simultaneous construction of the Fresh-Water (a/k/a “Sweet-Water” Canal), which brought fresh water from the Nile to a canal running parallel to the maritime canal, splitting north/south at the canal town of Ismailia and allowing for human habitation of the Canal Zone. As well, we will also discuss the creation of the towns at either end and along the canal itself including Port Said, on the Mediterranean, and Port Tewfik, on the Red Sea, and Ismailia, about midway between the two seas.

The origins of the Suez Canal; from the time of the pharaohs through to the time of Napoleon I, will be most interesting, in particular the mistaken belief that there was a significant difference in the elevations of the two seas, making a sea-level canal impractical. The role of Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French diplomat, in the creation of the Suez Canal Co. and its obtaining of a 99-year concession will be discussed as will be the hostility of Great Britain to the construction of the canal. Ironic considering that nearly from the get-go, the primary user of the canal was Great Britain since it provided a short-cut to India. The obtaining of a large share of stocks in the Canal Co. in 1875 by Great Britain and the military actions it has undertaken to defend the canal, starting in 1882 through to the Suez Crisis of 1956, will be reviewed as will be the Arab-Israeli conflicts affecting the canal in the post-WWII era. As well, we will discuss proposals to use thermonuclear excavation to create a canal through Israel’s Negev desert, the technology involved and similar proposals never realized for expansion of the Panama Canal..

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

• Understand/appreciate the elaborate celebration and documenting of the opening of the Suez Canal on November 17, 1869;
• Understand/appreciate the 2018 exhibition at Paris’ Institut du Monde Arabe entitled: “The Epic of the Suez: From the Pharaohs to the 21st century”;
• Understand/appreciate the watercolor paintings of the canal’s opening by French illustrator Edouard Riou;
• Understand/appreciate the roots of the Suez Canal dating back to the time of the pharaohs;
• Understand/appreciate the origins of the relationship between Ferdinand de Lesseps and Said Pasha, future Viceroy of Egypt;
• Understand/appreciate the origins of the Statue of Liberty as a colossal sculpture at the Red Sea outlet of the Suez Canal in the form of a peasant woman holding a torch aloft, conceived by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi as “Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia”;
• Understand/appreciate Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s announcement on July 26, 1956 of the nationalization of the Suez Canal Co. in order to use its revenue to build Aswan High Dam;
• Understand/appreciate how/why the Suez Canal turned Egypt into a strategic prize for the west;
• Understand/appreciate the misconception that Ferdinand de Lesseps was an engineer, rather, he was a professional diplomat;
• Understand/appreciate how the Suez Canal shortened the distance between east and west;
• Understand/appreciate the French influences in Egypt, staring with Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt;
• Understand/appreciate Great Britain’s hostility towards the French endeavor to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Suez;
• Understand/appreciate Ferdinand de Lesseps’s career as a diplomat and the evolution of his obsession to build a canal across the Isthmus of Suez;
• Understand/appreciate that Ferdinand de Lesseps got help from his cousin, France’s Empress Eugenie, who persuaded Napoleon III to endorse the Suez Canal project;
• Understand/appreciate that Egypt was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire at the time the Suez Canal was conceived and built;
• Understand/appreciate the establishment of the Suez Canal Co. with 200K shares sold at $100/share;
• Understand/appreciate that in 1859, De Lesseps returned to Egypt with $20 million and construction of the Suez Canal began;
• Understand/appreciate that one army of diggers worked north from Suez, another south from Port Said;
• Understand/appreciate the hand labor was grueling, requiring constant replacement due to losses from exhaustion and disease;
• Understand/appreciate the initial inefficient use of camels to transport fresh water from the Nile to the construction site/s of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the death of Said Pasha and replacement as Viceroy of Egypt by his brother, Ismail Pasha;
• Understand/appreciate the false rumor that slave labor was being used to construct the canal and the Sultan’s order to stop the hand digging of the canal;
• Understand/appreciate Napoleon III was called in to mediate the ensuing dispute, judging that Ismail Pasha was wrong and owed $17 million for the broken contract;
• Understand/appreciate De Lesseps’ use of the newfound funds to switch from hand labor to mechanization (i.e. dredges);
• Understand/appreciate how dredges were broken-down and transported to the construction site/s, where they were reassembled and floated on flooded sections of the canal;
• Understand/appreciate the towns that sprang-up at either end of the canal and in between;
• Understand/appreciate the harbors built at Suez and Port Said;
• Understand/appreciate that, at the peak period early in 1869, 60 dredges were working in the canal at one time;
• Understand/appreciate that excavated material was used as fill;
• Understand/appreciate that the work of the dredges went on night and day;
• Understand/appreciate the regatta that was held in honor of the opening of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate Ismail Pasha’s extravagant spending habit;
• Understand/appreciate that, borrowing at usurious rates from European bankers, by 1874 Ismail Pasha owed $450 million against a national revenue of only $40 million-a-year;
• Understand/appreciate hard-pressed, Ismail Pasha was forced to sell his 176,602 shares of canal stock;
• Understand/appreciate the purchase, in 1875, of Ismail Pasha’s shares of stock by British PM Benjamin Disraeli with the financial assistance of the Rothschilds;
• Understand/appreciate the growing influence of the French and British government/s over Egyptian affairs;
• Understand/appreciate the growing resentment of Egyptian to European influence and the resulting revolt of Colonel Ahmed Urabi, in 1882;
• Understand/appreciate the “gunboat diplomacy” of Great Britain and France concerning the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the British intervention in the Urabi revolt and ultimate victory, beginning Great Britain’s long history of intervention in Egypt and defense of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that the Suez Canal provided a short-cut to India;
• Understand/appreciate the importance to international trade of both the Suez and Panama Canal/s;
• Understand/appreciate the fact that the Suez Canal is a sea-level canal whereas the Panama Canal is a lake-and-lock canal;
• Understand/appreciate the critical differences in length, depth and breadth of the Suez vs. Panama canal;
• Understand/appreciate Ferdinand de Lesseps triumph with the Suez Canal and abject failure with the Panama Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the role of Ferdinand de Lesseps as “Chief Promoter” of both the Suez and Panama Canal/s;
• Understand/appreciate why the Suez Canal was considered to be a “Wonder of the World”;
• Understand/appreciate the lakes that make up part of the navigation of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate Scientific American magazine’s in-depth coverage of the Suez Canal before, during and after construction;
• Understand/appreciate J.F. Bateman’s detailed account (1870) regarding the design, construction, operation and advantages of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate how the Suez Canal provided a physical dividing line between east and west;
• Understand/appreciate the origins of the term: “East of Suez”;
• Understand/appreciate the various maximum permitted speeds allowed in the Suez Canal over the years;
• Understand/appreciate the original intention for ships to be towed through the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the experience of a traveler transiting the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate why Ferdinand de Lesseps was a/k/a: “Le Grand Francaise” (The Great Frenchman);
• Understand/appreciate the statue on the breakwater at Port Said honoring Ferdinand de Lesseps;
• Understand/appreciate the removal of De Lesseps’ statue after the canal was nationalized in 1956;
• Understand/appreciate the dangers posed by the Red Sea to sailing ships;
• Understand/appreciate that the opening of the Suez Canal occurred at a time when world shipping was transitioning from the “Age of Sail” to the “Age of Steam”;
• Understand/appreciate that steamships could safely navigate both the  Suez Canal and the Red Sea under their own power, unlike sailing ships;
• Understand/appreciate that the route around the Cape of Good Hope was not only longer, but more difficult due to stormy seas;
• Understand/appreciate that Port Said became a major coaling port to service steamships;
• Understand/appreciate that with the opening of the Suez Canal to steamships, coaling stations arose along the new route to the east;
• Understand/appreciate that as the Suez Canal was widened and deepened, ever-larger ships were able to transit through it;
• Understand/appreciate navigation at night through the Suez Canal, commenced in 1887, using searchlights hung from the bow of a transiting ship to illuminate the canal and banks in a wide arc;
• Understand/appreciate crossing stations (a/k/a “gares”) for ships transiting the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the increase in efficiency of the canal due to nighttime navigation;
• Understand/appreciate that when two large ships passed one another in the Canal, one of them has to be “tied-up” while the other one went slowly by;
• Understand/appreciate the never-ending job of dredging the Suez Canal of sands blown into it from the Sahara desert in order to maintain navigation in the ship channel;
• Understand/appreciate the use of stone pitching (facing) to protect the canal’s banks from the wash of passing ships;
• Understand/appreciate the different types of dredges used to maintain the navigation channel of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the railway running alongside the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the lighthouse at Port Said from which all distances along the canal are measured, mile-posts being on the east bank and km posts on the west bank;
• Understand/appreciate the new town of Port Fuad, a model city, which was inaugurated by King Fuad of Egypt in December, 1926;
• Understand/appreciate that the Suez Canal Company’s engineering and repair shops are situated at Port Fuad;
• Understand/appreciate that Lake Menzaleh, which is on the west of the canal and is part of the delta of the River Nile;
• Understand/appreciate that he level of the lake rises in conformity with that of the Nile, and a channel was cut affording exit for the water to the Mediterranean so that it could not rise and threaten the safety of the embankment of the canal;
• Understand/appreciate strategic initiatives (i.e. flooding) to protect the Suez Canal during WWI;
• Understand/appreciate the defense of the Suez Canal by British forces during both WWI and WWII;
• Understand/appreciate the crossing-point of the canal (by both ferry and bridge) at Kantara;
• Understand/appreciate the modern Mubarak Peace Bridge, which makes a connection between Africa, on the canal’s western shore and Asia, on the canal’s eastern shore;
• Understand/appreciate the Little and Great Bitter Lakes;
• Understand/appreciate that the southern terminal of the canal is Port Tewfik and Port Ibrahim, a tanker port;
• Understand/appreciate the rock cuttings required to construct the Suez Canal (i.e. Chalouf);
• Understand/appreciate the sylviculture (i.e. trees and shrubs) used to protect the banks of the canal;
• Understand/appreciate the annual figures for traffic, day and night, through the canal;
• Understand/appreciate that, except in the Bitter Lakes, at every six miles there was a fully staffed station which kept in touch with all other stations by telephone and telegraph;
• Understand/appreciate track was kept of all ships throughout its transit of the canal;
• Understand/appreciate that precedence for transiting the canal was given to mail-ships;
• Understand/appreciate the winds and tides affecting the canal;
• Understand/appreciate the importance of the Fresh-Water Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that the Suez Canal Co. was registered as an Egyptian company with headquarters in Paris, and the canal was constructed by French engineers, with capital that was mainly French and partly Egyptian, by French and Egyptian labor;
• Understand/appreciate that the Canal Co. did not own the canal in perpetuity and its concession expired in 1968, after which time the canal was to pass into the hands of the Egyptian Government;
• Understand/appreciate that by the late 1930s, more than half the revenue of the Suez Canal was derived from British ships, the route being vital to the British Empire;
• Understand/appreciate that the British Government owned 44% of the shares of the Canal Co.;
• Understand/appreciate that the president of the company was always a Frenchman,. With thirty-two directors;
• Understand/appreciate that all the executive work was done in Egypt;
• Understand/appreciate that the head officer (a/k/a “ Chief Agent”) had his offices in Cairo, and ws the diplomatic officer-in-charge of relations with the Egyptian Government; directly responsible to the board in Paris;
• Understand/appreciate that the Chief Agent supervised traffic, works, health, houses, buildings, legal business and water supplies;
• Understand/appreciate that principal officers of the Traffic Department were recruited from the French Navy;
• Understand/appreciate Engineering work, workshops, ferries and tugs wewere controlled by the Works Department, of which the main secretariat and personnel were French, but the workers natives;
• Understand/appreciate that no appointment was made without two years’ probation;
• Understand/appreciate the usage of the canal nation-by-nation;
• Understand/appreciate vessels carrying ammunition, explosives or other dangerous cargo have to conform to special regulations;
• Understand/appreciate vessels were not allowed to overtake one another under way, and speed had to be eased when passing sidings, sections of the bank where work was being done, or dredgers and barges;
• Understand/appreciate how Lt. Waghorn, of the Royal Navy, demonstrated, in the early 19th Century, the advantages to be gained by sending mail from India Alexandria-Suez route as compared to the Cape of Good Hope route;
• Understand/appreciate the statue in Port Tewfik erected by Ferdinand de Lesseps honoring Lt. Waghorn;
• Understand/appreciate the British-built railway between Alexandria and Suez;
• Understand/appreciate the Egyptian crisis of 1882 and the British/French intervention;
• Understand/appreciate the 1883 enlargement of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate proposals in the early 1880s for a second Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the Report of the International Commission On the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the sinking of a dredger, in 1885, its detrimental effect on canal traffic, removal and resumption of traffic through the canal;
• Understand/appreciate the history of canal projects in Egypt starting in the time of the Pharaohs;
• Understand/appreciate the mistaken belief that the Red sea was significantly higher than the Mediterranean Sea at either end of the Isthmus of Suez and the damper it put on pursuing a canal through the Isthmus;
• Understand/appreciate the geological and topographical outline of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate various cross-section of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the role of French Emperor Alexander III in the creation of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the early 20th Century widening of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the 1905 foundering of the Chatham, by collision with another vessel, and sinking in the center of the canal’s channel, tying-up traffic for several days until it was removed with explosives;
• Understand/appreciate the destruction of Flood Rock, in NYC’s Hell Gate;
• Understand/appreciate the combating of Yellow Fever in the Suez Canal Zone;
• Understand/appreciate sanitary efforts in the Suez Canal Zone;
• Understand/appreciate tariffs and fees imposed on ships transiting the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate rock removing machinery used in the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the deepening if the Suez Canal, completed in 1914;
• Understand/appreciate the on-going need for dredging to remove sand deposited in the canal by wind-driven sand storms from the Sahara desert;
• Understand/appreciate the 1888 Convention of Constantinople - a multilateral trade treaty, signed by the UK, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire that went into effect in 1904;
• Understand/appreciate comparisons of the Suez Canal with the Panama and other canals;
• Understand/appreciate the problem of siltation in the harbor at Port Said and how it was mitigated;
• Understand/appreciate subsidence of the northern end of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the development of Port Said;
• Understand/appreciate the creation of the two breakwaters at Port Said using cast concrete blocks;
• Understand/appreciate the development of the town of Ismailia;
• Understand/appreciate the use of specially designed dredging machines;
• Understand/appreciate Ferdinand de Lesseps’ book entitled: “book, “Percement de l’Isthme de Suez” whereby the advantages and obstacles to be overcome in building the Suez Canal were outlined;
• Understand/appreciate the breakwater at Suez;
• Understand/appreciate the dividends realized by shareholder in the Suez Canal Co.;
• Understand/appreciate the important role of the Suez Canal in maintaining the British Empire;
• Understand/appreciate the “Block System,” akin to that used on railroads, for controlling the traffic through the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the eight concessions granted by the Viceroy of Egypt between the years 1854 and 1869;
• Understand/appreciate the overall cost of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the pros and cons of the various methods of determining tonnage;
• Understand/appreciate the “Moorsom System” of determining tonnage;
• Understand/appreciate the application of transit fees based on tonnage;
• Understand/appreciate the commodities (i.e. tea) transiting through the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 26 Issue 1867;
• Understand/appreciate the various distances from point-to-point along the length of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the increases in canal traffic over the years;
• Understand/appreciate the difficulties of sailing vessels transiting the Suez Canal and their special requirements;
• Understand/appreciate Robert Stephenson, M.P.’s opposition to the construction of the Suez Canal, in reply to the statements of M. De Negrelli, Engineer;
• Understand/appreciate John Fowler’s account of the Works, Maintenance, Difficulties, Working, etc. of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the acquisition of land in order to construct the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the influence of the Suez Canal on the commerce in Coals of South Africa;
• Understand/appreciate currents and tidal influences in the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the revenue of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the various shipping lines that regularly used the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate complaints of ship owners on establishment of fees based on tonnage for ships transiting the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the significant differences for sailing vs. steamships in establishing tonnage/fees;
• Understand/appreciate systems used in other waterways to establish tonnage/fees;
• Understand/appreciate specially designed ships for transiting the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate ship owners demand that transit fees be made on the net register tonnage of a ship;
• Understand/appreciate modern-day SCA “Rules of Navigation,” including responsibilities, navigational requirements, use of tugs, mooring boats and moorings, emergencies, pollution, signals and penalty dues;
• Understand/appreciate late 19th and early 20th Century experiences of travelers transiting the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the Khamsin, which brings heat and dust from the Sahara desert and deposits it in the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the experiences of Maynard Owen Williams, writing in the mid-1930s of his experiences in National Geographic magazine as a passenger aboard a ship transiting the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the “Empire Marketing Board,” which was formed in May 1926 by Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote intra-Empire trade and to persuade consumers to “Buy Empire”;
• Understand/appreciate the circumstances surrounding the purchase of the Khedive’s 176, 602 shares by the British Government in November 1875;
• Understand/appreciate the Port Said lighthouse;
• Understand/appreciate why the Suez Canal was considered to be “the jugular vein of empire”;
• Understand/appreciate that through the Suez Canal, Great Britain and other powers were linked with their eastern realms;
• Understand/appreciate the various raw materials moving in each direction through the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the Arab dhows that plied the waters of the Suez Canal along with modern steamships;
• Understand/appreciate that, according to the Suez Canal Convention of 1888, the waterway is “always to be free and open, in time of war as in time of peace, to every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag…”;
• Understand/appreciate the “Canal of the Pharaohs,” which extended from the Nile to the Bitter Lakes;
• Understand/appreciate accounts of the ancient Egyptian canal system by Aristotle and Pliny the Elder;
• Understand/appreciate the filling in of the canal at the end of the 9th Century to prevent grain shipments Arabia;
• Understand/appreciate that the British considered a railway in lieu of a maritime canal;
• Understand/appreciate that the steamship made the Suez Canal practical and profitable;
• Understand/appreciate that the outlawing of conscripted labor provided an entrée for the use of machinery to more efficiently excavate the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that the Sweet-Water Canal takes-off from the Nile below Cairo and, splitting into a T at Ismailia, flows to Suez and Port Said. On it are locks by which small boats can step down to the traffic canal;
• Understand/appreciate that the Suez Canal passes through places recorded in the biblical story of Exodus;
• Understand/appreciate labor relations of the Suez Canal Co.;
• Understand/appreciate the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez and its operations;
• Understand/appreciate Canal Co. workers’ housing;
• Understand/appreciate the distinctive architecture of the office building of the Suez Canal Co., Port Said;
• Understand/appreciate the Canal Co. workshops;
• Understand/appreciate the training and work of pilots on the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that only Suez existed as a town prior to the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate Port Tewfik and Port Ibrahim, at the southern end of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the stations along the length of the Suez Canal, from south to north;
• Understand/appreciate buoys used in the canal;
• Understand/appreciate that a Turkish force unsuccessfully attacked the Suez Canal during WWI;
• Understand/appreciate the Suez Canal Defense Monument;
• Understand/appreciate the modulating effect of the Bitter Lakes;
• Understand/appreciate archaeological discoveries made while excavating the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate Lake Timsah, the Chalet de Lesseps and the town of Ismailia;
• Understand/appreciate the cut for the canal at El Gisr;
• Understand/appreciate Qantara (“The Bridge”), which marks the ancient route between Africa and Asia;
• Understand/appreciate the strategic importance of Quantara;
• Understand/appreciate the Kantara War Memorial Cemetery;
• Understand/appreciate the former railway bridge at Kantara;
• Understand/appreciate the Sinai and Palestine Railway/s;
• Understand/appreciate Port Said as an important provisioning and coaling station;
• Understand/appreciate that the Sinai desert was the ancient bridge between east and west;
• Understand/appreciate the waterway’s purpose was expressed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in his favorite Latin phrase: Apere terram gentibus (to open the earth to all peoples);
• Understand/appreciate that in 1950, the Suez Canal carried 72,609,000 long tons of cargo, more than 2.5xs as much as the Panama Canal but less than the Great Lakes’ Soo Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that in October 1951, Egypt demanded that Great Britain, guardian of the canal, withdraw her troops, but instead London reinforced the canal zone with men, planes and warships;
• Understand/appreciate how horsemanship, marksmanship and macaroni had an important role in fostering Ferdinand de Lesseps’ friendship with Mohammed Said;
• Understand/appreciate that the canal is a 24/7/365 day operation;
• Understand/appreciate that when the northern section of the canal was completed and Mediterranean waters were let in, Lake Timsah, formerly a marshy depression, materialized in five months;
• Understand/appreciate that before the maritime canal could be dug, fresh water had to be brought by camels to the site for workers;
• Understand/appreciate that it took four years to dig the Sweet-Water Canal, which brings Nile water eastward to Ismailia where it forks to extend north and south along the Suez Canal route;
• Understand/appreciate that in building the Sweet-Water Canal, workers found evidence that they were not the first to construct a water-course through the land;
• Understand/appreciate Napoleon’s engineers mistakenly calculated that the Red Sea was more than 30-feet higher than the Mediterranean;
• Understand/appreciate that in both World Wars, the Suez Canal was a prize sought in vain by powers that ultimately lost;
• Understand/appreciate that strategic Ismailia lies beside Lake Timsah in the heart of the Canal Zone;
• Understand/appreciate the strategic importance of the Canal Zone to the Eastern Mediterranean;
• Understand/appreciate pressure on Great Britain, by the early 1950s, to abandon its extensive defense bases in the Canal Zone;
• Understand/appreciate the deliberations over what kind of withdrawal from the Canal Zone would be acceptable to all interested parties;
• Understand/appreciate the British “Right of Re-Entry” doctrine;
• Understand/appreciate the decline of the British Empire in the post-WWII years;
• Understand/appreciate that the emergence of the two new superpowers, the U.S. and U.S.S.R., changed the world’s power balance in the post-WWII years;
• Understand/appreciate that the U.S. urged the colonial powers of the west, in particular Great Britain, to rid itself of its vast empire after WWII;
• Understand/appreciate that anti-imperialism created a new climate in the late 1940s thus, having colonies around the world was no longer politically correct;
• Understand/appreciate that in the post-WWII period, reduced to a medium-sized European country, both in terms of influence and power;
• Understand/appreciate that maintaining the British Empire became a financial burden too great to bear post-WWII;
• Understand/appreciate that after WWII, decolonization occurred rapidly, but the establishment of a “Commonwealth of Nations” helped maintain Britain’s ties to its former colonies;
• Understand/appreciate that Great Britain had responsibilities in its diminishing empire to protect its peoples from oppression;
• Understand/appreciate British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling’s poem entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands”;
• Understand/appreciate the rise of Gamel Abdel Nasser to power in Egypt;
• Understand/appreciate Nasser’s ambition to kick-out the British, nationalize the Suez Canal and use the income to construct the Aswan High Dam;
• Understand/appreciate the Suez Crisis of 1956;
• Understand/appreciate the strategic goals of Britain, France and Israel in their invasion of Egypt in 1956;
• Understand/appreciate why nationalization of the Suez Canal sparked the Suez Crisis and the diplomacy that tried to prevent it and, ultimately, end it;
• Understand/appreciate the closure of the canal to shipping by Egypt as a result of the crisis;
• Understand/appreciate President Eisenhower’s objections to the invasion and efforts towards a cease-fire;
• Understand/appreciate the cease-fire and use of UN peacekeeper troops to enforce the peace;
• Understand/appreciate the problems associated with clearing scuttled ships in the channel of the canal and at Port Said;
• Understand/appreciate the re-opening of the Suez Canal in 1957;
• Understand/appreciate how the Suez Crisis of 1956 made Israel a player on the world stage;
• Understand/appreciate that the Suez Crisis caused the demise of British PM Anthony Eden;
• Understand/appreciate Maj. Gen. Glen F. Edgerton’s analysis of the history, construction, operation and future prospects for the Suez Canal as the sole American member on the board of eighteen experts appointed by the Suez Canal Co. to advise on canal maintenance starting in 1952;
• Understand/appreciate American imports through the canal – less than one million metric tons in 1938 but were more than 11 million in 1955;
• Understand/appreciate that by 1957, Europe counted on the canal for half its oil supply, or about 50 million gallons-per-day;
• Understand/appreciate the migration of sea creatures in either direction through the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the biology of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that without continual dredging the Suez Canal would become a dry ditch because desert winds constantly try to fill it with sand;
• Understand/appreciate that ships’ wakes eat insidiously at the canal’s straight banks;
• Understand/appreciate that in addition to maintenance, there must be improvement to widen and deepen the channel as ships increased in size;
• Understand/appreciate that by 1957, more than a billion-and-a-half cubic-feet of sand and rock had been dug-out of the canal, about 6x as much as the original excavation;
• Understand/appreciate that for the first 25 miles, a ship moves in the channel dug through marshy Lake Manzala, next to a road, a railroad, and the fresh-water canal branch supplying Port Said;
• Understand/appreciate the origin of the word “Posh”;
• Understand/appreciate the El Ballah bypass;
• Understand/appreciate the change in climate at either end of the canal;
• Understand/appreciate navigating the canal;
• Understand/appreciate hydrodynamic effects on a ships’ hull in the canal;
• Understand/appreciate that the pilot’s main task is to give constant advice – in effect, orders for the helmsman – to keep the ship in the middle of the channel;
• Understand/appreciate the training of a Suez Canal pilot;
• Understand/appreciate incidents and their causes involving ship mishaps in the canal;
• Understand/appreciate that enough water, coal, or fuel oil must be ready for rapid un-loading so the ship can be lightened and her draft decreased at least a foot (this is to help refloat her if she goes aground);
• Understand/appreciate that if lines, tugs, skill and luck should not suffice, canal authorities reserve the right to blow her up to clear the channel;
• Understand/appreciate by the late 1950s, the canal had some 5K employees, scores of ware-houses and workshops, dredges, tugs, barges, and harbor craft; modern housing for personnel, and medical centers;
• Understand/appreciate that the Isthmus of Suez is one of Egypt’s richest provinces thanks to irrigation through a fresh-water canal from the Nile;
• Understand/appreciate that some 70K acres were reclaimed from the desert and the farming population normally numbered about 35K;
• Understand/appreciate that more than half-a-million live in the five canal towns, where some 9K businesses offer work, most of it keyed to the canal;
• Understand/appreciate that in 1955, tolls yielded $93,000,000, half-a-million passengers passed through, along with 107,000,000 metric tons of freight, about 5x as much as in 1946;
• Understand/appreciate that the canal’s opening in 1869 sparked a commercial revolution in the wake of growing industrialization;
• Understand/appreciate that surveys found a sea-level canal feasible because the water levels of the two seas are about equal (actually the Mediterranean is higher in summer, and the Red Sea is higher in winter, by about a foot);
• Understand/appreciate that the opera Aida was produced for the opening of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that, trying to dig the Panama Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps was defeated by yellow fever and engineering and financial difficulties;
• Understand/appreciate that as soon as it opened, the canal’s dimensions were found to be inadequate;
• Understand/appreciate the training-in-scale of canal pilots;
• Understand/appreciate the use of asphalt mattresses on canal banks;
• Understand/appreciate the on-going need for making improvements to the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the background leading to and events surrounding the Six-Day War of June 1967;
• Understand/appreciate how Israel more than quadrupled its size in less than a week of war;
• Understand/appreciate the strategic situation Israel found itself in, surrounded by hostile neighbors, in 1967;
• Understand/appreciate why Egypt was considered by Israel to be the greatest threat;
• Understand/appreciate the Israeli decision to mobilize its forces;
• Understand/appreciate the tactical situation along Israel’s border in 1967;
• Understand/appreciate the Arab-Israeli conflict as a proxy-war between the superpowers;
• Understand/appreciate that the Israeli war plan depended on a surprise which would destroy the Arab air forces on the ground, starting with Egypt;
• Understand/appreciate that without air cover, the Arab armies were vulnerable to attack by the IAF in the open desert terrain;
• Understand/appreciate Israel’s military advantages going into the Six-Day War;
• Understand/appreciate after six days of fighting, Israel had achieved all its military goals, holding  the entire Sinai peninsula to the east bank of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that in the 1960s, Israel bought aircraft from France and tanks from Great Britain and although Israel had good relations with the U.S., it was not yet the largest recipient of American military aid;
• Understand/appreciate that as a result of the Six-Day War, Israel had routed the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. It captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Desert from Egypt; the Golan Heights from Syria; and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, from Jordan;
• Understand/appreciate the aftermath of the Six-Say War which left the Suez Canal closed to shipping until 1975;
• Understand/appreciate the emergence of larger ships to carry more goods economically due to the closure of the Suez Canal and need to use the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope;
• Understand/appreciate the tactical and strategic situation along the Suez Canal in the aftermath of the Six-Day War;
• Understand/appreciate Egyptian SAMs placed along the length of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Battle of Ismailia;
• Understand/appreciate “Land for Peace” agreements whereby Israel gave up territory in exchange for peace treaties;
• Understand/appreciate the deepening of the Suez Canal, completed in 1914, which gave the canal a depth of 29-feet for its entire length;
• Understand/appreciate that, originally, it was planned to give the canal a depth of 26.25-feet, and for years after the Suez Canal was completed this depth was maintained;
• Understand/appreciate dredging operations, conducted in the early 1880s, added 1-foot. to the depth of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate comparisons of size, cost, capacity etc. between the Suez and Panama Canal/s;
• Understand/appreciate how the Suez and Panama Canal/s have adapted themselves to meet the needs of commercial shipping;
• Understand/appreciate the tonnage of cargo passing through both canals,
• Understand/appreciate how the Suez and Panama Canals can/do remain competitive in light of new competition from a Nicaragua Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the dimensions of super-sized container ships;
• Understand/appreciate the new 22-mile-long parallel canal to the existing Suez Canal and expansion of the existing bypasses;
• Understand/appreciate the design, construction, financing, cost, prospects etc. of the new Nicaragua Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the debate over the expansion of the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate how/why the Suez Canal is a major conduit for invasive species;
• Understand/appreciate that the nomadic jellyfish, originally from the Red Sea, now infests the eastern Mediterranean;
• Understand/appreciate that solutions to the problem of invasive species traveling through canals do exist (i.e. Air Curtains)
• Understand/appreciate that nomadic jellyfish and poisonous puffer fish pose a clear and present danger;
• Understand/appreciate the events surrounding the grounding of the container ship Ever Given in the Suez Canal in March 2021;
• Understand/appreciate what caused the Ever Given to run aground and the hydrodynamics of ships in the canal;
• Understand/appreciate the economic consequence to world commerce caused by the blockage;
• Understand/appreciate the attempts to “unstuck” the Ever Given;
• Understand/appreciate the use of excavators, dredges and/or tugs to try and set free the Ever Given;
• Understand/appreciate the problems associated with navigating large ships in the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate that roughly 12% of all maritime trade makes its way through the Suez Canal. Making it second only to the Panama Canal, the world’s busiest marine throughway;
• Understand/appreciate that the Suez Canal has become a vital shipping passage and can accommodate as many as 50 ships-a-day, quickly linking markets in Asia and Europe;
• Understand/appreciate that about 90% of the world’s goods ply the oceans;
• Understand/appreciate a history of ships running aground/blocking the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the domino-effect on world shipping when a vital waterway is blocked;
• Understand/appreciate the use of high spring tides to set the Ever Given free;
• Understand/appreciate that when the Moon reaches full or new phase near perigee, the closest point in its orbit to Earth, Spring tides are even higher;
• Understand/appreciate the convoy that Ever Given was part of in its attempted transit through the Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the “Bank Effect”;
• Understand/appreciate the release and return of the Ever Given to the canal;
• Understand/appreciate the various “choke points” to international shipping;
• Understand/appreciate the historical background of proposals for a second Suez Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the proposal for a “Dead Sea Canal” which would traverse Israel’s Negev desert from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea;
• Understand/appreciate the proposal to use thermonuclear excavation to create the Dead Sea Canal;
• Understand/appreciate the scientific principles behind thermonuclear excavation;
• Understand/appreciate the proposal to use thermonuclear excavation to construct an additional canal in Panama;
• Understand/appreciate why the “Pan-Atomic Canal” in Panama was never realized;
• Understand/appreciate the “Atoms for Peace” program;
• Understand/appreciate the history of thermonuclear excavation experimentation by the U.S. and U.S.S.R.;
• Understand/appreciate proposals to use thermonuclear excavation to create reservoirs, ports and canals;
• Understand/appreciate the history of proposals to expand the Panama Canal using conventional techniques;
• Understand/appreciate suggestions for alternative routes to supplement the Panama Canal, and;
• Understand/appreciate the legacy of the Suez Canal as a great civil engineering achievement.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for architects, engineers and other design professionals.

Benefit to Attendees

The attendee/s will gain an insight into the history, design, construction, operation, expansion, geopolitical concerns etc. of one of the 19th Century’s most important Civil Engineering achievements; the Suez Canal - one of the world’s most important waterways for international commerce.

Course Introduction

The course includes an in-depth slideshow (PowerPoint) presentation and the viewing of documentary films.

Course Content

In this course, you are required to view/study the following slideshow and the materials contained in the web pages:

SUEZ CANAL: Joining of the Waters (printable handout in PDF, 38 MB, see Note A below for downloading instruction)
SUEZ CANAL: Joining of the Waters (non-printable slideshow for screen-viewing only, 96 MB, see Note A below for downloading instruction)

Archival/Documentary Film:

TITLE: Extreme Constructions: The Suez Canal
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABc-AepM0JA
DURATION: 51:53
TITLE: The Suez Canal Experience: Ship Transit Southbound
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwdU2cYRbnM
DURATION: 10:45
TITLE: Suez Crisis 1956
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvqZ1ufLwk
DURATION: 27:13
TITLE: Israel’s Alternative Project to the Suez Canal
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf_c8a6_OA0&t=3s
DURATION: 08:08

Note A: Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right-clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader from your computer.

Course Summary

Aperire Terram Gentibus

On the pedestal at the base of the statue of “La Grand Francaise” (The Great Frenchman); Ferdinand de Lesseps, which once stood on the breakwater at Port Said - gateway to the Suez Canal, is this quote in Latin meaning: “To Open the Earth to All Peoples.” Indeed, the Suez Canal did open the world to all peoples by expanding world commerce many fold. The statue of the man who single-handedly made the Suez Canal possible stood with his right hand extending south, to the canal he envisioned across the Isthmus of Suez and made manifest by the power of his will. Welcoming all the world, even the naysayers recognized the achievement. The Suez Canal will forever be a work-in-progress lest the sands of the Sahara consume it and return it to the barren desert it was dug out of.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites:

Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Lesseps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal_Area_Development_Project#New_Suez_Canal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Suez_Canal_obstruction

Films

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty-m4pm8oog
(What Really Happened at the Suez Canal? – 11:33)

https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/h0X1qIECZcU
(The Suez War of 1956 – 2:22)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e7LZu_ceZQ
(Here’s Why the Suez Crisis Almost Led to Nuclear War – 04:05)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkcy9wQJRNA&t=5s
(Southbound Suez Canal Cruise – 09:52)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWjg7kxPsMI
(Crossing the Suez Canal - 10:10)

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.