Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

150 Years to Inauguration of Suez Canal


Mon 11 Nov 2019 | 01:59 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

150 years ago, Suez Canal was inaugurated amid pomp to become one of the world's most important waterways.

The man-made canal was reportedly excavated between 1859 and 1869, in an ambitious project to connect the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, and shorten shipping times for growing international trade from Europe to Asia.

A report by AFP quoted late French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, the mastermind behine the project, saying: the Suez Canal is "not a prerogative of one nation."

The project is allegedly drawn from the dreams of the pharaohs who dredged a similar channel 4,000 years earlier. "It owes its birth to, and belongs to, the aspirations of humanity," he said in an 1864 speech.

Inherited stories from the project making indicated that a million Egyptians, using camels and mules as beasts of burden, laboured over the decade-long construction, while tens of thousands died in the process.

The first ships sailed down the 164-kilometre (102-mile) canal on November 17, 1869,  avoiding a lengthy and perilous circumvention via the tip of southern Africa.

The canal has been at the heart of politics, when, in July 1956, Egypt's iconic late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, a staunch defender of Arab unity, defied British and French interests and nationalised the Suez Canal Company which ran the waterway.

The decision later triggered an international crisis, got France and Britain -- countries which both controlled the company at that point -- as well as Israel to attack Egypt around three months later. The canal also served as a frontline during Arab-Israel wars in 1967 and 1973.

In 2015, the vital sea route was expanded to accommodate modern, larger vessels. It has grown into a major economic asset, providing passage for 10 percent of all international maritime trade. In that year, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi staged a grand ceremony for the opening of a new 72-kilometre (43-mile) lane parallel to the canal after 12 months of excavations.

Dug in the 19th century using "rudimentary tools", today the waterway has become "a lifeline to Egypt," Osama Rabie, head of the authority told AFP.

The authority has boosted new cargo and transit records saying the new lane has facilitated the crossing of larger shipping convoys and decreased transit times.

In August "a record breaking number" of 81 ships carrying a total of 6.1 million tonnes transited the canal in one day, the authority said.

The tonnage has increased, according to Jean-Marie Miossec, shipping specialist and professor at the University Paul Valery-Montpellier.

In an interview with AFP, he said that the growth is linked to an "increase in container traffic between Asia and Europe as well as Europe and the Indian subcontinent".

"By expanding the canal, Egyptian authorities offer augmented potential, especially with regard to vessel sizes and transit time," he said.

Revenues for the fiscal year 2018-2019 reached $ 5.9 billion, up 5.4 percent from the previous year, the authority said in August.

Egypt is expecting revenues to rocket to $13.2 billion in 2023.