@ The first was 1900 B.C.

The ancient

Suez

By LAWRENCE
GRISWOLD

wih all due respect to the
French Suez Canal Com-
pany, the fact is that Egypt,
in some thousands of years
of history, has seldom been
without a Suez Canal.

Only about 30 years elapsed
between the closing of the
eanal connecting the Pelusian
mouth of the Nile with the
Red Sea via the Bitter Lakes,
and the grand opening of the
big ditch of the Compagnie
Universelle du Canal Mari-
time de Suez. In fact, a con-
siderable part of the ancient
canal system of Pelusium was
ineorporated with the de Les-
seps’ canal, being at the time
still in operation as a deep
water bypass of the silted
river mouth.

Geographically, the situation
of Egypt at the time of Amen-
emhet I, about 1900 B.C., re-
quired a canal connecting the
mouths of. the Nile with the
Red Sea.

Amenemhet I was a warrior
who had to fight both to build
a united Egypt and to hold it.
One of his most important
campaigns, during the 30 years
of his reign, was against the
Nubians of the Sudan.

It is very likely that the
canal which was dug between
the Nile and the Red Sea was
tf assist in the conquest of
this early Egyptian country
and its sources of the vast
river which has always been
the lifeblood of the nation.

At any rate, this canal,
which is the first recorded in
Egypt (although there may
have been earlier ones), was
still in operation at the time
of Seti I, six centuries later.

Somewhere between _ 1346
B.C., when Ikhnaton died, and
the reign of Rameses II, 150
years later, the waterway fell
into disrepair, probably due
to silting. Most of the car-
goes from the Red Sea enter-
ed Egypt by donkey caravan
near the present site of Is-
mailia.

The channel of the ancient
canal, lying somewhat to the
east of the present waterway,
is still visible, however, and
part of it lies in the middle of
Wadi Tumilat, a river valley.

The canal of Amenemhet,
technically speaking, was prob-
ably somewhat shorter than
the 100 miles of the modern
canal.

To begin with, the delta of
the Nile was not then so far
extruded into the Mediterran-

ean. At the time of the First

PRESIDENT NASSER

Union of Egypt, about 3500
B.C. the flat delta land was
probably the floor of a shal-
low bay and Heliopolis and
Saqqare, near’: modern Cairo,
were probably very close to
the sea, if they were not ac-
tually seaports. :

Over the centuries, the silt
carried down annually by the
flooding Nile gradually ex-
tended the shore line until the
ancient capitals, like Ur of
the Chaldees, were left behind
in the Delta‘s slow encroach-
ment upon the sea.

It is recorded that Nechos,
a king of the 26th Dynasty,
attempted to put the canal
back in working order about
500 B.C. but he was unsuccess-
ful.

Parts of the original canal
were still in use, aiding the
commerce between the Medi-
terranean and the Red Sea.
But no complete link existed
until after Darius the Persian
and Macedonian Alexander
had, in succession, placed
Egypt among their conquests.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, son
of Alexander the Great’s gen-
eral, finally rejoined the waters
of the Nile and the Red Sea
after six centuries of separa-
tion.

For 300 years the Ptolemaic
canal operated busily. Then,
during Cleopatra’s time, it silt-
ed up again and only Caius
Julius Caesar’s engineers were
able to keep it open by con-
stant dredging.

When Caesar was killed,
neither Mare Antony nor the
Emperor Octavian seems to
have made any effort to con-
tinue the maintenance. How-
ever, the Emperor Trajan re-
opened it and widened the
canal for the passage of the
heavy Roman galleys.

At the fall of Rome, Egypt
came under the rule of the
Byzantine Emperor of the
East and it is not likely that
the brief period of supervi-
sion from Constantinople was
energetic enough to keep the
waterways and the ships which
rode them in good repair. But

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(Byzantine) army. at Helio-
polis in 640 A.D. and the reign
of the Islamic peoples com-
menced.

One of the first accomplish-
ments of the Abbasid ruler
was construction of another
Suez Canal, at a right angle
to the canal of Amenenhet.

In 771 A.D. the canal was
deliberately closed by Caliph
Abdullah Abderrahman ibn
Maowlya to prevent its use
by arms smugglers, and its re-
mained inactive until Sultan
Hakim Mansur opened it again
in 1000 A.D.

However, the canal had been
badly choked during its long
disuse and the constant chang-
ing of the river’ mouth near

The pharoahs also built the first Suez Canal

NOVEMBER 23, 1956 —

an errali¢

water supply. Neverthele®

it remained sporadically One :
until Mohammed Ali, fou® ‘
of the present Royal House he
Egypt, closed the canal 19
interests of safety,/in 1847.

Twenty-two years ;
wards, in 1869, accompan’
by the most impressive pee
eantry, Fernand de LesseP
and his backers, royal
civil, again opened the the
Canal to the commerce °
world. : a

But the tradition had oy 4
last laugh. The French in
Canal promptly silted UP
its most practiced fashi0P B p
required frantic:labor to fo!
it open until a new P/#
widening and deepening “.,
channel was inaugurate y
1876. This program, 4 is
halted by two world wat®
still in progress. ae

With the aid of steam Fon
ered machinery, the melt
connection between the © nq
siae mouth of the NiLé yen
the Red Sea was a task ae
for de Lesseps. , For thé k
of Egypt, who were not 5° ent
tunate, the accomplish™
was certainly one of the far
ders of the ancient worl yden
exceeding a mere roof bs at
in Babylon or a sta vars
Rhodes, .or even 4 aan
(lighthouse) at Alexand””

To have endured the «wee? ae
turies of operation
Amenemhet and Rameses
original canal must ney its
retaining walls built 1? they
sides or above them, ony (hee
could not have outlaste@
first wind-storm.

No, Egypt’s canals,
from Dubastis, Tene OF
sium, whether or not
across the desert or follow ase
hollows of a wadi — they apy
an achievement of whit ade
civilization might be PI

E
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAS ~

Bubastis provided

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