The Pleistocene and Postpleistocene History of the Isthmus of Suez
29
OLD CANALS ACROSS THE ISTHMUS
LUSIUM
Wodirumilo!
=
Wod i Tumilol COn
Cl
8rocklsh WOltr
Fig.11. Old (artificial) canals built across the Isthmus of Suez (from Por, 1971 b)
shipping canals across the Isthmus of Suez. As if trying to keep pace with the
gradually widening gap between the two seas and to maintain by artificial means
a navigational link which existed since memory, many of the strong rulers of
Egypt made themselves known as canal builders (Fig. 11).
According to Strabo the first artificial waterway was built by Sesostris
(Ramses II) in the 13th Century B.e. and started near Arsinoe (Suez of today) "in
that recess ofthe Arabian Gulfwhich penetrates into Egypt. Here are harbors and
dwellings and several canals with lakes adjacent to them". The canal went north
and then followed Wadi Tumilat to join the Pelusian branch of the Nile near the
town of Phacusa. From there, the ships passed into the Mediterranean following
the Nile branch to the port of Pelusium.
In the 7th Century B.e., the pharaoh Necho made an attempt to reconstruct
the canal which had probably fallen into disuse, but was afraid of the supposed
sea-Ievel differences between the two seas and of the possibility of the Red Sea
flooding Egypt. Darius the Persian ruler, was more courageous. He celebrated his
reconstruction of the canal in the text of a stele on the western shore overlooking
the Bitter Lake. It is interesting that Herodotus-although living earlier than
29
OLD CANALS ACROSS THE ISTHMUS
LUSIUM
Wodirumilo!
=
Wod i Tumilol COn
Cl
8rocklsh WOltr
Fig.11. Old (artificial) canals built across the Isthmus of Suez (from Por, 1971 b)
shipping canals across the Isthmus of Suez. As if trying to keep pace with the
gradually widening gap between the two seas and to maintain by artificial means
a navigational link which existed since memory, many of the strong rulers of
Egypt made themselves known as canal builders (Fig. 11).
According to Strabo the first artificial waterway was built by Sesostris
(Ramses II) in the 13th Century B.e. and started near Arsinoe (Suez of today) "in
that recess ofthe Arabian Gulfwhich penetrates into Egypt. Here are harbors and
dwellings and several canals with lakes adjacent to them". The canal went north
and then followed Wadi Tumilat to join the Pelusian branch of the Nile near the
town of Phacusa. From there, the ships passed into the Mediterranean following
the Nile branch to the port of Pelusium.
In the 7th Century B.e., the pharaoh Necho made an attempt to reconstruct
the canal which had probably fallen into disuse, but was afraid of the supposed
sea-Ievel differences between the two seas and of the possibility of the Red Sea
flooding Egypt. Darius the Persian ruler, was more courageous. He celebrated his
reconstruction of the canal in the text of a stele on the western shore overlooking
the Bitter Lake. It is interesting that Herodotus-although living earlier than