2. The Suez Canal
2.1 The Building of the Canal, Its Physical Features
When the first spades struck the Isthmus in 1859, many preliminary measurements had already been made and the international discussion about the feasibility and the future ofthe Canal was already centuries old.
After the closure of the old canal in the 8th Century, several plans were aired
to reconstruct the old waterway. There were plans made in Venice around 1500,
and the German philosopher Leibniz, in a memorandum called "Consilium Aegyptiacum" (1671) proposed the building ofthe Canal to Louis XIV. At the same
time there was a permanent and lingering fear that if a canal were built the Red
Sea might flood the lowlands of the Nile Delta. This assumption which survived
over the centuries is also found in Strabo's account of the old canal project.
J ames Capper in 1783 wrote: "If the canal was to be supplied with water from
the Red Sea an extraordinary spring tide or storm might have ... overflowed lower
Egypt so as to render it a mere salt water lake". Despite all this, many enlightened
minds in Europe among them Goethe and the young general Napoleon continued
to play with the idea of rebuilding the canal. During his Egyptian campaign (1789)
Napoleon rode with a small escort to Suez to visit the remnants of the old canal.
Even in his last years on St. Helena he wrote enthusiastically about the Canal
project. He charged the engineer Le Pere with the task of investigating the
problem of the differences in the level of the two seas. Le Pere reached the
conclusion that at high tide the Red Sea is about 10 m higher than the Mediterranean. Although the English surveyor Captain F. R. Chesney corrected the
measurements in 1830, it took an international team ofthree engineers, headed by
the Austrian Nigrelli, to establish defmitively that the maximum difference at very
high tides in the Gulf of Suez is only about 1.30-1.50 m. This difference between
the tide of the Red Sea and the practically tideless Mediterranean is just enough
to create strong tidal streams in the southern part of the Suez Canal and to
contribute to a northward flow in the northern part ofthe Canal. Actually, the sea
level at Suez may sometimes reach more than 2 m over that of the Mediterranean.
Schleiden (1858) mentions for the first time the fears that the proposed canal
would soon be obstructed by blown-in sand. Ferdinand de Lesseps (1873) tried to
refute this fear along with the prognosis of an evaporative drying-out of the
Canal. He took these risks, along with many others, and made his achievment
also an example of personal daring (Fig.13). The sanding-in of the Canal was still
considered as areal danger when the Canal was closed and not maintained
2.1 The Building of the Canal, Its Physical Features
When the first spades struck the Isthmus in 1859, many preliminary measurements had already been made and the international discussion about the feasibility and the future ofthe Canal was already centuries old.
After the closure of the old canal in the 8th Century, several plans were aired
to reconstruct the old waterway. There were plans made in Venice around 1500,
and the German philosopher Leibniz, in a memorandum called "Consilium Aegyptiacum" (1671) proposed the building ofthe Canal to Louis XIV. At the same
time there was a permanent and lingering fear that if a canal were built the Red
Sea might flood the lowlands of the Nile Delta. This assumption which survived
over the centuries is also found in Strabo's account of the old canal project.
J ames Capper in 1783 wrote: "If the canal was to be supplied with water from
the Red Sea an extraordinary spring tide or storm might have ... overflowed lower
Egypt so as to render it a mere salt water lake". Despite all this, many enlightened
minds in Europe among them Goethe and the young general Napoleon continued
to play with the idea of rebuilding the canal. During his Egyptian campaign (1789)
Napoleon rode with a small escort to Suez to visit the remnants of the old canal.
Even in his last years on St. Helena he wrote enthusiastically about the Canal
project. He charged the engineer Le Pere with the task of investigating the
problem of the differences in the level of the two seas. Le Pere reached the
conclusion that at high tide the Red Sea is about 10 m higher than the Mediterranean. Although the English surveyor Captain F. R. Chesney corrected the
measurements in 1830, it took an international team ofthree engineers, headed by
the Austrian Nigrelli, to establish defmitively that the maximum difference at very
high tides in the Gulf of Suez is only about 1.30-1.50 m. This difference between
the tide of the Red Sea and the practically tideless Mediterranean is just enough
to create strong tidal streams in the southern part of the Suez Canal and to
contribute to a northward flow in the northern part ofthe Canal. Actually, the sea
level at Suez may sometimes reach more than 2 m over that of the Mediterranean.
Schleiden (1858) mentions for the first time the fears that the proposed canal
would soon be obstructed by blown-in sand. Ferdinand de Lesseps (1873) tried to
refute this fear along with the prognosis of an evaporative drying-out of the
Canal. He took these risks, along with many others, and made his achievment
also an example of personal daring (Fig.13). The sanding-in of the Canal was still
considered as areal danger when the Canal was closed and not maintained