Which 100-mile long waterway links the Mediterranean and the RedSea? View the step-by-step solution to: Which 100-mile long waterway links the Mediterranean and the RedSea? This question was answered on Jun 08, 2016. View the Answer Which 100-mile long waterway links the Mediterranean and the RedSea? ChristopherLane posted a question · Jun 08, 2016 at 1:45am Top Answer Here's the explanation you needed for... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29990764) ]} leonardkabib answered the question · Jun 08, 2016 at 1:46am Other Answers Here's the explanation you needed for... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29994732) ]} The Suez canal which connects the... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(30000863) ]} Search for Other Related Study Materials Recently Asked Questions Need a World History tutor? mathtutor1983 2 World History experts found online!

Average reply time is less than an hour Get Homework Help Why Join Course Hero? Course Hero has all the homework and study help you need to succeed! We’ve got course-specific notes, study guides, and practice tests along with expert tutors and customizable flashcards—available anywhere, anytime. - - Study Documents Find the best study resources around, tagged to your specific courses. Share your own to gain free Course Hero access or to earn money with our Marketplace. - Question & Answers Get one-on-one homework help from our expert tutors—available online 24/7. Ask your own questions or browse existing Q&A threads. Satisfaction guaranteed! - Flashcards Browse existing sets or create your own using our digital flashcard system. A simple yet effective studying tool to help you earn the grade that you want! Which 100- mile-long waterway links the mediterranean and the red sea? Which 100- mile-long waterway links the mediterranean and the red sea? Answers: The Suez-canal which runs through the desert in Egypt. Isn't that the Suez Canal? More Related Questions & Answers...

9 Fascinating Facts About the Suez Canal - History in the Headlines 9 Fascinating Facts About the Suez Canal November 17, 2014 By Evan Andrews Painting of the Suez Canal by Albert Reiger Share this: 9 Fascinating Facts About the Suez Canal Author 9 Fascinating Facts About the Suez Canal URL Google On November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas was officially opened in a lavish ceremony at Egypt’s Port Said. The canal took more than 15 years to plan and build, and its construction was repeatedly hindered by political disputes, labor shortages and even a deadly cholera outbreak. When finally completed, the 101-mile-long waterway permanently transformed international shipping by allowing vessels to skip the long and treacherous transit around the southern tip of Africa. On the 145th anniversary of its opening, check out nine surprising facts about the canal that links the Eastern and Western worlds. 1. Its origins date back to ancient Egypt. The modern Suez Canal is only the most recent of several manmade waterways that once snaked their way across Egypt.

The Egyptian Pharaoh Senusret III may have built an early canal connecting the Red Sea and the Nile River around 1850 B.C., and according to ancient sources, the Pharaoh Necho II and the Persian conqueror Darius both began and then abandoned work on a similar project. The canal was supposedly finished in the 3rd century B.C. during the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and many historical figures including Cleopatra may have traveled on it. Rather than the direct link offered by the modern Suez Canal, this ancient “Canal of the Pharaohs” would have wound its way the through the desert to the Nile River, which was then used to access the Mediterranean. 2. Napoleon Bonaparte considered building it. After conquering Egypt in 1798, the French military commander Napoleon Bonaparte sent a team of surveyors to investigate the feasibility of cutting the Isthmus of Suez and building a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. But following four separate excursions to the region, his scouts incorrectly concluded that the Red Sea was at least 30 feet higher than the Mediterranean.

Any attempt to create a canal, they warned, could result in catastrophic flooding across the Nile Delta. The surveyors’ faulty calculations were enough to scare Napoleon away from the project, and plans for a canal stalled until 1847, when a team of researchers finally confirmed that there was no serious difference in altitude between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. ferdindand de lesseps 3. The British government was strongly opposed to its construction. Planning for the Suez Canal officially began in 1854, when a French former diplomat named Ferdinand de Lesseps negotiated an agreement with the Egyptian viceroy to form the Suez Canal Company. Since Lesseps’ proposed canal had the support of the French Emperor Napoleon III, many British statesmen considered its construction a political scheme designed to undermine their dominance of global shipping.

The British ambassador to France argued that supporting the canal would be a “suicidal act,” and when Lesseps tried to sell shares in the canal company, British papers labeled the project “a flagrant robbery gotten up to despoil the simple people.” Lesseps went on to engage in a public war of words with British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, and even challenged railway engineer Robert Stephenson to a duel after he condemned the project in Parliament. The British Empire continued to criticize the canal during its construction, but it later bought a 44 percent stake in the waterway after the cash-strapped Egyptian government auctioned off its shares in 1875. 4. It was built using a combination of forced peasant labor and state-of-the-art machinery. Building the Suez Canal required massive manpower, and the Egyptian government initially supplied most of the labor by forcing the poor to work for nominal pay and under threat of violence. Beginning in late-1861, tens of thousands of peasants used picks and shovels to dig the early portions of the canal by hand. Progress was painfully slow, and the project hit a snag after Egyptian ruler Ismail Pasha abruptly banned the use of forced labor in 1863.

Faced with a critical shortage of workers, Lesseps and the Suez Canal Company changed their strategy and began using several hundred custom-made steam- and coal-powered shovels and dredgers to dig the canal. The new technology gave the project the boost it needed, and the company went on to make rapid progress during the last two years of construction. Of the 75 million cubic meters of sand eventually moved during the construction of the main canal, some three-fourths of it was handled by heavy machinery. 5. The Statue of Liberty was originally intended for the canal. As the Suez Canal neared completion in 1869, French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi tried to convince Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Egyptian government to let him build a sculpture called “Egypt Bringing Light to Asia” at its Mediterranean entrance. Inspired by the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, Bartholdi envisioned a 90-foot-tall statue of a woman clothed in Egyptian peasant robes and holding a massive torch, which would also serve as a lighthouse to guide ships into the canal.

The project never materialized, but Bartholdi continued shopping the idea for his statue, and in 1886 he finally unveiled a completed version in New York Harbor. Officially called “Liberty Enlightening the World,” the monument has since become better known as the Statue of Liberty. The opening of the Suez Canal on November 17, 1869 (Credit: The Print Collector/Getty Images) 6. Its creator later tried—and failed—to build the Panama Canal. Having silenced his critics by completing the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps later turned his attention toward cutting a canal across the Isthmus of Panama in Central America. Work began in 1881, but despite Lesseps’ prediction that the new canal would be “easier to make, easier to complete, and easier to keep up” than the Suez, the project eventually descended into chaos. Thousands died during construction in the sweltering, disease-ridden jungle, and the team burned through nearly $260 million without ever completing the project.

The company finally went belly up in 1889, triggering a massive scandal that saw Lesseps and several others—including Eiffel Tower designer Gustave Eiffel, who had been hired to design canal locks—convicted of fraud and conspiracy. It would take another 25 years before the Panama Canal was finally completed in a decade-long, American-led construction project. 7. The canal played a crucial role in a Cold War-era crisis. In 1956, the Suez Canal was at the center of a brief war between Egypt and the combined forces of Britain, France and Israel. The conflict had its origins in Britain’s military occupation of the canal zone, which had continued even after Egypt gained independence in 1922. Many Egyptians resented the lingering colonial influence, and tensions finally boiled over in July 1956, when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, supposedly to help fund a dam across the Nile River. In what became known as the Suez Crisis, a combined British, Israeli and French force launched an attack on Egypt in October 1956.

The Europeans succeeded in advancing close to the canal, but later withdrew from Egypt in disgrace following condemnation from the United States and the threat of nuclear retaliation from the Soviet Union. British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned in the wake of the scandal, and the Suez Canal was left under Egyptian control. Sunken ships during the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis (Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images) 8. A fleet of ships was once stranded in the canal for more than eight years. During June 1967’s Six Day War between Egypt and Israel, the Suez Canal was shut down by the Egyptian government and blocked on either side by mines and scuttled ships. At the time of the closure, 15 international shipping vessels were moored at the canal’s midpoint at the Great Bitter Lake. They would remain stranded in the waterway for eight years, eventually earning the nickname the “Yellow Fleet” for the desert sands that caked their decks. Most of the crewmembers were rotated on and off the stranded vessels on 3-month assignments, but the rest passed the time by forming their own floating community and hosting sporting and social events. As the years passed, the fleet even developed its own stamps and internal system of trade.

The 15 marooned ships were finally allowed to leave the canal in 1975. By then, only two of the vessels were still seaworthy enough to make the voyage under their own power. 9. It’s about to get a major overhaul. The Suez Canal has enjoyed increased traffic in recent years, with roughly 50 ships passing through its waters every day. Shipping tolls allow Egypt to rake in around $5 billion annually, but the canal is still hampered by its narrow width and shallow depth, which are insufficient to accommodate two-way traffic from modern tanker ships. In August 2014, Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority announced an ambitious plan to deepen the canal and create a new 22-mile lane branching off the main channel. Preliminary work has already begun on the $8.5 billion project, which Egyptian authorities claim could more than double the canal’s annual revenue by 2023. Tags Suez Canal: History and Overview - Geography Geography Suez Canal Connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea Egptian Suez Canal Has Been Center of Conflict The guided missile destroyer USS Scott transits the Suez Canal.

Getty Images Suez Canal Construction History Although the Suez Canal wasn't officially completed until 1869, there is a long history of interest in connecting both the Nile River in Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. It is believed that the first canal in the area was constructed between the Nile River delta and the Red Sea in the 13th Century B.C.E. During the 1,000 years following its construction, the original canal was neglected and its use finally stopped in the 8th Century. The first modern attempts to build a canal came in the late 1700s when Napoleon Bonaparte conducted an expedition to Egypt. He believed that building a French controlled canal on the Isthmus of Suez would cause trade problems for the British as they would either have to pay dues to France or continue sending goods over land or around the southern part of Africa. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge Studies for Napoleon's canal plan began in 1799 but a miscalculation in measurement showed the sea levels between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas as being too different for a canal to be feasible and construction immediately stopped.

The next attempt to build a canal in the area occurred in the mid-1800s when a French diplomat and engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, convinced the Egyptian viceroy Said Pasha to support the building of a canal. In 1858, the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was formed and given the right to begin construction of the canal and operate it for 99 years, after which time, the Egyptian government would take over control of the canal. At its founding, the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was owned by French and Egyptian interests. Construction of the Suez Canal officially began on April 25, 1859. It opened ten years later on November 17, 1869 at a cost of $100 million. Suez Canal Use and Control Almost immediately after its opening, the Suez Canal had a significant impact on world trade as goods were moved around the world in record time. In 1875, debt forced Egypt to sell its shares in ownership of the Suez Canal to the United Kingdom . However, an international convention in 1888 made the canal available for all ships from any nation to use.

Shortly thereafter, conflicts began to arise over use and control of the Suez Canal. In 1936 for example, the U.K. was given the right to maintain military forces in the Suez Canal Zone and control entry points. In 1954, Egypt and the U.K. signed a seven year contract that resulted in the withdrawal of British forces from the canal area and allowed Egypt to take control of the former British installations. In addition, with the creation of Israel in 1948, the Egyptian government prohibited the use of the canal by ships coming and going from the country. Also in the 1950s, the Egyptian government was working on a way to finance the Aswan High Dam . Initially it had support from the United States and the U.K. but in July 1956, both nations withdrew their support and the Egyptian government seized and nationalized the canal so passage fees could be used to pay for the dam. On October 29 of that same year, Israel invaded Egypt and two days later Britain and France followed on grounds that passage through the canal was to be free. In retaliation, Egypt blocked the canal by intentionally sinking 40 ships.

These events were known as the Suez Crisis. In November 1956, the Suez Crisis ended when the United Nations arranged a truce between the four nations. The Suez Canal then reopened in March 1957 when the sunken ships were removed. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Suez Canal was closed several more times because of conflicts between Egypt and Israel. In 1962, Egypt made its final payments for the canal to its original owners (the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company) and the nation took full control of the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal Today Today, the Suez Canal is operated by the Suez Canal Authority. The canal itself is 101 miles (163 km) long and 984 feet (300 m) wide. It begins at the Mediterranean Sea at Point Said flows through Ismailia in Egypt, and ends at Suez on the Gulf of Suez. It also has a railroad running its entire length parallel to its west bank.

The Suez Canal can accommodate ships with a vertical height (draft) of 62 feet (19 m) or 210,000 deadweight tons. Most of the Suez Canal is not wide enough for two ships to pass side by side. To accommodate this, there is one shipping lane and several passing bays where ships can wait for others to pass. The Suez Canal has no locks because Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea's Gulf of Suez have approximately the same water level. It takes around 11 to 16 hours to pass through the canal and ships must travel at a low speed to prevent erosion of the canal's banks by the ships' waves. Significance of the Suez Canal In addition to dramatically reducing transit time for trade worldwide, the Suez Canal is one of the world's most significant waterways as it supports 8% of the world's shipping traffic and almost 50 ships pass through the canal daily. Because of its narrow width, the canal is also considered a significant geographic chokepoint as it could easily be blocked and disrupt this flow of trade.

Future plans for the Suez Canal include a project to widen and deepen the canal to accommodate the passage of larger and more ships at one time. To read more about the Suez Canal visit the Suez Canal Authority official website. Suez Canal - Connects the Mediterranean sea to the Red sea - YouTube Suez Canal - Connects the Mediterranean sea to the Red sea Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Feb 24, 2013 For Egypt Holidays visit our website: Suez Canal - Connects the Mediterranean sea to the Red sea Suez Canal is the largest man-made artificial sea-level waterway found in Egypt. It was opened in the 1869 to allow water transportation between Europe and Asia to avoid ships navigation around Africa. The canal original size was 164 km long and 8metre deep. However enlargements have been undertaken and it now has a length of 193.30 km and its 24 metres deep.

It also has a northern access channel of 22 km and 9 km southern access. The canal has a northern terminus known as Port Said and a southern terminus called Port Tewfik. Suez Canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority of the Arab Republic of Egypt. A treaty signed under the International Treaty Act shows that the canal can be used in times of war or peace by every vessel of commerce or of war and no flag is required for distinction. The canal allows passage of ships up to 20 metres and with weight of 240,000 tons. The height allowed above water is a maximum of 68 metres. Big ships offload their cargo to canal- owned boats to reduce their weight and reload later at the end of the canal. Suez Canal attracts a lot of visitors who come to see the amazing wonders of this man made sea. It serves as the first salt water passage between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The canal has attracted attention from film makers. A film known as Suez was made in 1938 and it's based on the canal's history.

Also in the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, a character known as Nautilus travels through an underwater passage beneath the Suez Canal. All these highlight the canal as a very import part in opening up Africa to other parts of the world. Subscribe, Like and coment the video for more content. Thanks for watching. Canal History Canal History Time in SC: GMT+2 Canal & The Society The Suez Canal ’s role is not confined to servicing the world trade. It goes beyond that to serve the Canal Zone community ... Canal History Historical Outline: Egypt was the first country to dig a man-made canal across its lands to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea via the branches of the River Nile. The first who dug it was Senausert III, Pharaoh of Egypt (1874 B.C.). This canal was abandoned to silting and reopened several times as follows: - Canal of Sity I 640 A.D. The Suez Canal is actually the first canal that directly links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. It was opened for navigation on the 17 th of November 1869.

Egypt nationalized the canal on the 26 th of July 1956. The Canal was closed five times; the last time was the most serious one since it lasted for 8 years. The Canal was then reopened for navigation on the 5 th of June 1975. Suez Canal History: It is recorded that Egypt was the first country to dig a canal across its land with a view to activate world trade. The Suez Canal is considered to be the shortest link between the east and the west due to its unique geographic location; it is an important international navigation canal linking between the Mediterranean sea at Port said and the red sea at Suez. The idea of linking the Mediterranean sea with the red sea by a canal dates back to 40 centuries as it was pointed out through history starting by the pharaohs era passing by the Islamic era until it was dredged reaching its current condition today. It is considered to be the first artificial canal to be used in Travel and Trade. The Whole Idea of establishing a canal linking between the red sea and the Mediterranean dates back to the oldest times, as Egypt dredged the first artificial canal on the planet’s surface.

The pharaohs dredged a canal link in between river Nile and the red sea. The inscriptions in the tomb of Weni the Elder, who lived during the 6th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom (c. 2407-2260 BC) tell us a lot about Egyptian canal building and the reasons for building them - (for war ships and for transporting monument stone). Scholars are still debating, however, whether his waterways ran all the way from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The first canal was dug under the reign of Senausret III, Pharao of Egypt (1887-1849 BC) linking the Mediterranean Sea in the north with the Red sea in the south via the river Nile and its branches. The Canal often abandoned to silting and was successfully reopened to navigation by Sity I (1310 BC), Necho II (610 BC), Persian King Darius (522 BC), Polemy II (285 BC), Emperor Trajan (117 AD) and Amro Ibn Elass (640 AD), following the Islamic conquest.

Under Necho II , a canal was built between the Pelusian branch of the Nile and the northern end of the Bitter Lakes (which lies between the two seas) at a cost of, reportedly, 100,000 lives. However, over many years, the canal fell into disrepair, only to be extended, abandoned, and rebuilt again. Necho was the first who attempted the channel leading to the Erythraian Sea (Red sea and Gulf of Suez which was extended to near by Ismailia city), which Dareios the Persian afterwards completed: the length of this is a voyage of four days, and in breadth it was so dug that two triremes could go side by side driven by oars; and the water is brought into it from the Nile.

The channel is conducted a little above the city of Bubastis (near by Zagazig city) by Patumos the Arabian city (Near by Ismailia city), and runs into the Erythraian Sea: and it is dug first along those parts of the plain of Egypt which lie towards Arabia (Eastern desert), just above which run the mountains which extend opposite Memphis (south of Cairo), where are the stone-quarries,--along the base of these mountains the channel is conducted from West to East for a great way; and after that it is directed towards a break in the hills and tends from these mountains towards the noon-day and the South Wind to the Arabian gulf (Gulf of Suez).

Now in the place where the journey is least and shortest from the Northern to the Southern Sea (which is also called Erythraian), that is from Mount Casion (east of Port Said), which is the boundary between Egypt and Syria, the distance is exactly a thousand furlongs (1 furlongs equals about 200 meter) to the Arabian gulf; but the channel is much longer, since it is more winding; and in the reign of Necos there perished while digging it twelve myriads of the Egyptians. Now Necos ceased in the midst of his digging, because the utterance of an Oracle impeded him, which was to the effect that he was working for the Barbarian: and the Egyptians call all men Barbarians who do not agree with them in speech. After having been neglected, it was rebuilt by the Persian ruler, Darius I (522-486 BC), whose canal can still be seen along the Wadi Tumilat. According to Herodotus, his canal was wide enough that two triremes could pass each other with oars extended, and that it took four days to navigate.

He commemorated the completion of his canal with a series of granite stelae set up along the Nile bank. This canal is said to have been extended to the Red Sea by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC), abandoned during the early Roman rule, but rebuilt again by Trajan (98-117 AD). Over the next several centuries, it once again was abandoned and sometimes dredged by various rulers for various but limited purposes. Amro Ibn Elass rebuilt the canal after the Islamic takeover of Egypt linking the Nile to the Red Sea creating a new supply line from Cairo . It was used for shipping grain to Arabia and to transport the pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The canal was stopped up in 767 AD by the Abbasid caliph El-Mansur to cut off supplies to insurgents located in the Delta and to starve out rebels in Medina. In modern times the Suez Canal is actually the first canal directly linking the Mediterranean to the Red sea. The first efforts to build a modern canal came from the Egypt expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte, who hoped the project would create a devastating trade problem for the English.

Though this project was begun in 1799 by Charles Le Pere, a miscalculation estimated that the levels between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were too great (estimating that the Red Sea was some ten meters higher than that of the Mediterranean Sea) and work was quickly suspended. Napoleon was told that the Red Sea was 30 feet higher than the Mediterranean. Dig a canal, his surveyors said, and the Red Sea will hemorrhage into the Mediterranean. Napoleon's engineers also considered the idea of a canal running directly between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, but they miscalculated a difference of ten meters between the two sea levels and gave up the idea, and it would sweep away the Nile Delta. Then, in 1833, a group of French intellectuals known as the Saint-Simoniens arrived in Cairo and they became very interested in the Suez project despite such problems as the difference in sea levels. Unfortunately, at that time Mohammed Ali had little interest in the project, and in 1835, the Saint-Simoniens were devastated by a plague epidemic. Most of the twenty or so engineers returned to France.

They did leave behind several enthusiasts for the canal, including Ferdinand de Lesseps (who was then the French vice-consul in Alexandria) and Linant de Bellefonds In Paris, the Saint-Simoniens created an association in 1846 to study the possibility of the Suez Canal once again. In 1847, Bourdaloue confirmed that there was no real difference in the levels between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and it was Linant de Bellefonds that drew up the technical report. Unfortunately, there was considerable British opposition to the project, and Mohammed Ali, who was ill by this time, was less than enthusiastic. In 1854 the French diplomat and engineer Vicomte Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps succeeded in enlisting the interest of the Egyptian viceroy Said Pasha in the project. In 1858 La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez (Universal Company of the Maritime Suez Canal) was formed with authority to cut a canal and to operate it for 99 years, after which ownership would return to the Egyptian government. The company was originally a private Egyptian concern, its stock owned chiefly by French and Egyptian interests.

In 1875 the British government purchased Egypt's shares. The pilot study estimated that a total of 2,613 million cubic feet of earth would have to be moved, including 600 million on land, and another 2,013 million dredged from water. The total original cost estimate was 200 million francs. When at first the company ran into financial problems, it was Pasha Said who purchased 44 percent of the company to keep it in operation. However, the British and Turks were concerned with the venture and managed to have work suspended for a short time, until the intervention of Napoleon III. Excavation of the canal actually began on April 25th, 1859, and between then and 1862, the first part of the canal was completed. However, after Ismail succeeded Pasha Said in 1863, the work was again suspended. After Ferdinand De Lesseps again appealed to Napoleon III, an international commission was formed in March of 1864. The commission resolved the problems and within three years, the canal was completed.

On November 17, 1869 the barrage of the Suez plains reservoir was breached and waters of the Mediterranean flowed into the Red Sea and the canal was opened for international navigation. Completion of the 160- kilometer long waterway, however, took ten years of excruciating and poorly compensated labor by Egyptian workers, who were drafted at the rate of 20,000 every ten months from the ranks of the peasantry. The completion of the Suez Canal was a cause for considerable celebration. In Port Said , the extravaganza began with fireworks and a ball attended by six thousand people. They included many heads of state, including the Empress Eugenie, the Emperor of Austria, the Prince of Wales, the Prince of Prussia and the Prince of the Netherlands. Two convoys of ships entered the canal from its southern and northern points and met at Ismailia. Parties continued for weeks, and the celebration also marked the opening of Ismail's old Opera House in Cairo , which is now gone.

Because of external debts, the British government purchased the shares owned by Egyptian interests, namely those of Said Pasha, in 1875, for some 400,000 pounds sterling. Yet France continued to have a majority interest. Under the terms of an international convention signed in 1888 (The Convention of Constantinople), the canal was opened to vessels of all nations without discrimination, in peace and war. Nevertheless, Britain considered the canal vital to the maintenance of its maritime power and colonial interests. Therefore, the provisions of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 allowed Britain to maintain a defensive force along the Suez Canal Zone. However, Egyptian nationalists demanded repeatedly that Britain evacuate the Suez Canal Zone, and in 1954 the two countries signed a seven-year agreement that superseded the 1936 treaty and provided for the gradual withdrawal of all British troops from the zone. The canal remained under the control of two powers until Nasser nationalized it in 1956; it has since been operated by the Suez Canal Authority . The canal was closed to navigation twice in the contemporary period.

The first closure was brief, coming after the tripartite British-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956, an invasion primarily motivated by the nationalization of the waterway. The canal was reopened in 1957. The second closure occurred after the June 1967 War with Israel and lasted until 1975, when Egypt and Israel signed the second disengagement accord. After July 1952 Revolution, president Gamal Abd El Naser publicized the canal in announcement in (26 July, 1956) making the management of the canal a 100% Egyptian, which enraged the major countries leading to the Triad assault on Egypt in (29 October, 1956) which caused to the closing of the canal and it was reopened in (march 1957). Canal History 13th century BCE, A canal is constructed between the Nile Delta and the Red Sea. For the following centuries, the canal was only partially maintained... 1854, By a French initiative, the viceroy of Egypt, Said Pasha, decides for a project to build a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea...

1858, La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez is formed to construct the canal. 17 Nov 1869, With great splendour, the canal is opened for navigation. Dimensions were 22 metre in bottom width, 58 metre in surface width, and a depth of 8 metres... 2 Mar 1888, The Convention of Constantinople guaranteed right of passage of all ships through the Suez Canal during war and peace... 13 Jun 1956, Suez Canal Zone restored to Egypt. 26 Jul 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal. 5 Jun 1975, Suez Canal reopened... What two bodies of water does the Suez Canal connect? | Reference.com What two bodies of water does the Suez Canal connect? A: Quick Answer The two bodies of water connected by the Suez Canal are the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The Suez Canal is located through a narrow strip of land in the north of Egypt. Full Answer The Suez Canal was opened to commercial shipping in 1869.

The canal measures 100.82 miles, with a northern access channel 14 miles in length and a southern access channel 5.6 miles long. Its northern point on the Mediterranean sea is Port Said, while its southern point along the Red Sea is Port Tewfik. The canal reduces the sea voyage between Europe and Asia by about 4,300 miles. Egypt holds trial run on second Suez Canal - BBC News BBC News Egypt holds trial run on second Suez Canal 25 July 2015 Image copyright EPA Image caption The exercise was closely monitored by helicopters and naval vessels The first cargo ships have passed through Egypt's second Suez Canal, amid tight security, ahead of the new waterway's official opening next month. Construction on the new lane, which runs alongside part of the existing canal, started less than a year ago . The 72km (44 mile) route allows two-way traffic and can accommodate larger vessels. Several container ships from around the world successfully navigated it on Saturday as part of a trial run. Helicopters and naval vessels escorted the ships as part of the security operation.

The Sinai Peninsula, which borders the canal, is a base for Islamic militants, who have killed hundreds of people since the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Trade boost The original Suez Canal opened almost 150 years ago and links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says the expansion of one of the world's busiest shipping routes will boost trade and increase employment across the country. It currently handles 7% of global sea-borne business, and is one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency income. Suez Canal project projected revenue by 2023 (up from $5.3bn) 72km of new channel and bypasses 97 ships a day by 2023 (up from 49) 11-hour southbound transit (down from 18) 12 months to complete project by Aug 2015 Source: Suez Canal Authority AFP Work on the second waterway is estimated to have cost about $8.5bn (£5.4bn) and is being carried out by the army around the clock.

It will be formally inaugurated on 6 August - one year after construction started - meeting an ambitious target set out by Mr Sisi. The project has been labelled "a rebirth" for Egypt by the head of the Suez Canal Authority, Adm Mohab Mameesh. Image copyright EPA Image caption Officials say the new waterway will be a symbol of the new Egypt But it does have its critics. Some experts are dubious about the revenue projections and believe the money should have been spent elsewhere. "It's a patriotic project first of all, and that's very difficult to quantify," Cairo-based investment analyst Angus Blair told the BBC. On Saturday, Adm Mameesh also revealed plans to build another canal near East Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea. It is expected to cost around $60m and will be 9.5km (6 miles) long, Reuters reports. Map of Suez Canal - Suez Canal Map, History Facts, Suez Canal Location - World Atlas SUEZ CANAL Suez Canal - Map & Details The Suez Canal, mostly man made, connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Gulf of Suez.

The canal opened in 1869, and remains one of the planet's busiest shipping lanes. Through it the vast percentage of Europe's energy needs are transported from the Middle East oil fields. This vital corridor of commerce has been closed due to war twice. The most recent closing occurred during the Six-Day War (in 1967), a brief war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. A terrific photo by NASA: the Suez Canal . Red Sea | sea, Middle East | Britannica.com sea, Middle East Indian Ocean Red Sea, Arabic Al-Baḥr Al-Aḥmar , narrow strip of water extending southeastward from Suez , Egypt , for about 1,200 miles (1,930 km) to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects with the Gulf of Aden and thence with the Arabian Sea . Geologically, the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba (Elat) must be considered as the northern extension of the same structure. The sea separates the coasts of Egypt, Sudan , and Eritrea to the west from those of Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the east.

Its maximum width is 190 miles, its greatest depth 9,974 feet (3,040 metres), and its area approximately 174,000 square miles (450,000 square km). El Gouna, Egypt, a tourist resort on the Red Sea. © Xufang/Shutterstock.com Red Sea area. Inset shows the relative motions of the three plates that make up the Red Sea area. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The Red Sea contains some of the world’s hottest and saltiest seawater . With its connection to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, it is one of the most heavily traveled waterways in the world, carrying maritime traffic between Europe and Asia . Its name is derived from the colour changes observed in its waters. Normally, the Red Sea is an intense blue-green; occasionally, however, it is populated by extensive blooms of the algae Trichodesmium erythraeum, which, upon dying off, turn the sea a reddish brown colour. The following discussion focuses on the Red Sea and the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba. For treatment of the Suez Canal, see Suez Canal .

Physical features Physiography and submarine morphology The Red Sea lies in a fault depression that separates two great blocks of Earth’s crust—Arabia and North Africa . The land on either side, inland from the coastal plains, reaches heights of more than 6,560 feet above sea level , with the highest land in the south. Similar Topics Andaman Sea At its northern end the Red Sea splits into two parts, the Gulf of Suez to the northwest and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast. The Gulf of Suez is shallow—approximately 180 to 210 feet deep—and it is bordered by a broad coastal plain. The Gulf of Aqaba, on the other hand, is bordered by a narrow plain, and it reaches a depth of 5,500 feet. From approximately 28° N, where the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba converge, south to a latitude near 25° N, the Red Sea’s coasts parallel each other at a distance of roughly 100 miles apart. There the seafloor consists of a main trough, with a maximum depth of some 4,000 feet, running parallel to the shorelines.

South of this point and continuing southeast to latitude 16° N, the main trough becomes sinuous, following the irregularities of the shoreline. About halfway down this section, roughly between 20° and 21° N, the topography of the trough becomes more rugged, and several sharp clefts appear in the seafloor. Because of an extensive growth of coral banks, only a shallow narrow channel remains south of 16° N. The sill (submarine ridge) separating the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is affected by this growth; therefore, the depth of the water is only about 380 feet, and the main channel becomes narrow. The clefts within the deeper part of the trough are unusual seafloor areas in which hot brine concentrates are found. These patches apparently form distinct and separated deeps within the trough and have a north-south trend, whereas the general trend of the trough is from northwest to southeast. At the bottom of these areas are unique sediments, containing deposits of heavy metal oxides from 30 to 60 feet thick. Earth’s Seas Most of the islands of the Red Sea are merely exposed reefs.

There is, however, a group of active volcanoes just south of the Dahlak Archipelago (15° 50′ N), as well as a recently extinct volcano on the island of Jabal Al-Ṭāʾir. Geology The Red Sea occupies part of a large rift valley in the continental crust of Africa and Arabia. This break in the crust is part of a complex rift system that includes the East African Rift System , which extends southward through Ethiopia , Kenya, and Tanzania for almost 2,200 miles and northward for more than 280 miles from the Gulf of Aqaba to form the great Wadi Aqaba–Dead Sea–Jordan Rift; the system also extends eastward for 600 miles from the southern end of the Red Sea to form the Gulf of Aden. Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales The Red Sea valley cuts through the Arabian-Nubian Massif, which was a continuous central mass of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks (i.e., formed deep within the Earth under heat and pressure more than 540 million years ago), the outcrops of which form the rugged mountains of the adjoining region.

The massif is surrounded by these Precambrian rocks overlain by Paleozoic marine sediments (542 to 251 million years old). These sediments were affected by the folding and faulting that began late in the Paleozoic; the laying down of deposits, however, continued to occur during this time and apparently continued into the Mesozoic Era (251 to 65.5 million years ago). The Mesozoic sediments appear to surround and overlap those of the Paleozoic and are in turn surrounded by early Cenozoic sediments (i.e., between 65.5 and 55.8 million years old). In many places large remnants of Mesozoic sediments are found overlying the Precambrian rocks, suggesting that a fairly continuous cover of deposits once existed above the older massif. The Red Sea is considered a relatively new sea, whose development probably resembles that of the Atlantic Ocean in its early stages. The Red Sea’s trough apparently formed in at least two complex phases of land motion. The movement of Africa away from Arabia began about 55 million years ago.

The Gulf of Suez opened up about 30 million years ago, and the northern part of the Red Sea about 20 million years ago. The second phase began about 3 to 4 million years ago, creating the trough in the Gulf of Aqaba and also in the southern half of the Red Sea valley. This motion, estimated as amounting to 0.59 to 0.62 inch (15.0 to 15.7 mm) per year, is still proceeding, as indicated by the extensive volcanism of the past 10,000 years, by seismic activity, and by the flow of hot brines in the trough. Climate Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest The Red Sea region receives very little precipitation in any form, although prehistoric artifacts indicate that there were periods with greater amounts of rainfall. In general, the climate is conducive to outdoor activity in fall, winter, and spring—except during windstorms—with temperatures varying between 46 and 82 °F (8 and 28 °C). Summer temperatures, however, are much higher, up to 104 °F (40 °C), and relative humidity is high, rendering vigorous activity unpleasant.

In the northern part of the Red Sea area, extending down to 19° N, the prevailing winds are north to northwest. Best known are the occasional westerly, or “Egyptian,” winds, which blow with some violence during the winter months and generally are accompanied by fog and blowing sand. From latitude 14° to 16° N the winds are variable, but from June through August strong northwest winds move down from the north, sometimes extending as far south as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait; by September, however, this wind pattern retreats to a position north of 16° N. South of 14° N the prevailing winds are south to southeast. Hydrology No water enters the Red Sea from rivers, and rainfall is scant; but the evaporation loss—in excess of 80 inches per year—is made up by an inflow through the eastern channel of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Gulf of Aden. This inflow is driven toward the north by prevailing winds and generates a circulation pattern in which these low- salinity waters (the average salinity is about 36 parts per thousand) move northward.

Water from the Gulf of Suez has a salinity of about 40 parts per thousand, owing in part to evaporation, and consequently a high density. This dense water moves toward the south and sinks below the less dense inflowing waters from the Red Sea. Below a transition zone, which extends from depths of about 300 to 1,300 feet, the water conditions are stabilized at about 72 °F (22 °C), with a salinity of almost 41 parts per thousand. This south-flowing bottom water, displaced from the north, spills over the sill at Bab el-Mandeb, mostly through the eastern channel. It is estimated that there is a complete renewal of water in the Red Sea every 20 years. Britannica Lists & Quizzes

Question: Which 100-mile long waterway links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea?
Answer: Suez Canal