French campaign in Egypt and Syria
During the French campaign in Egypt and Syria in late 1798, Napoleon expressed interest in finding the remnants of an ancient waterway passage. This culminated in a cadre of archaeologists, scientists, cartographers and engineers scouring northern Egypt. Their findings, recorded in the "Description de l'Égypte", include detailed maps that depict the discovery of an ancient canal extending northward from the Red Sea and then westward toward the Nile.