Editing Suez Canal (section)

== Precursors ==
[[File:Canal of the Pharaohs Map-en.svg|thumb|[[Canal of the Pharaohs]], that followed Wadi Tumilat]]

Ancient west–east [[canals]] were built to facilitate travel from the [[Nile]] to the [[Red Sea]].<ref name="Britannica">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Suez Canal |volume=26 |pages=22–25}}</ref><ref name="Rappoport">Rappoport, S. (Doctor of Philosophy, Basel). ''History of Egypt'' (undated, early 20th century), Volume 12, Part B, Chapter V: "The Waterways of Egypt", pp. 248–257. London: The Grolier Society.</ref><ref name="Hassan">Hassan, F. A. & Tassie, G. J. ''Site location and history'' (2003). [http://www.e-c-h-o.org/khd/ Kafr Hassan Dawood On-Line, Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organization] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050416092045/http://www.e-c-h-o.org/khd/ |date=16 April 2005 }}. Retrieved 8 August 2008.</ref> One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of [[Senusret II]]<ref name="Sesostris">Please refer to [[Sesostris#Modern research]].</ref> or [[Ramesses II]].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/><ref name="Hassan"/> Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first,<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/> was constructed under the reign of [[Necho II]] (610–595 BCE), but the only fully functional canal was engineered and completed by [[Darius I]] (522–486 BC).<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/><ref name="Hassan"/>[[File:Iss016e019375.jpg|thumb|The southern terminus of the Suez Canal at [[Suez]] on the [[Gulf of Suez]], at the northern end of the [[Red Sea]]]]

=== Second millennium BC ===
[[James Henry Breasted]] attributes the earliest-known attempt to construct a canal to the [[Cataracts of the Nile|first cataract]], near Aswan, to the [[Sixth Dynasty of Egypt]] and its completion to [[Senusret III]] (1878–1839 BCE) of the [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt]].<ref name="Breasted">J. H. Breasted, ''[[Ancient Records of Egypt]]'', 1906. Volume One, pp. 290–292, §§642–648. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.</ref>

The legendary [[Sesostris]] (likely either [[Pharaoh]] [[Senusret II]] or Senusret III of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt<ref name="Sesostris"/><ref name="Breasted"/>) may have constructed the ancient canal, the [[Canal of the Pharaohs]], joining the Nile with the [[Red Sea]] (1897–1839 BCE), when an irrigation channel was constructed around 1848 BCE that was navigable during the [[Flooding of the Nile|flood season]], leading into a dry river valley east of the [[Nile River Delta]] named [[Wadi Tumilat]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Fisher|first1=William B.|last2=Smith|first2=Charles Gordon|title=Suez Canal|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Suez-Canal|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|access-date=24 May 2017|date=|archive-date=19 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119120534/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Suez-Canal|url-status=live}}</ref> (In [[ancient times]], the Red Sea may have reached northward to the [[Bitter Lakes]]<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/> and [[Lake Timsah]]).<ref name="Columbia">''[[The Columbia Encyclopedia]]'', Sixth Edition, s.v. [http://www.bartleby.com/65/su/SuezCana.html "Suez Canal"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214112620/http://www.bartleby.com/65/su/SuezCana.html |date=14 February 2009 }}. Retrieved 14 May 2008.</ref><ref name="Naville">[[Édouard Naville|Naville, Édouard]]. "Map of the Wadi Tumilat" (plate image), in ''The Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus'' (1885). London: Trubner and Company.</ref>

In his ''[[Meteorology (Aristotle)|Meteorology]]'', [[Aristotle]] (384–322 BC) wrote:
<blockquote>One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and [[Darius the Great|Darius]] afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/meteorology/book1.html |title='''Meteorology''' (1.15) |publisher=Ebooks.adelaide.edu.au |date=25 August 2010 |access-date=24 August 2011 |archive-date=11 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011014050/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/meteorology/book1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

[[Strabo]] wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and [[Pliny the Elder]] (23/24–79 AD) wrote:

<blockquote>165. Next comes the [[Tyro]] tribe and, the harbour of the [[Daneoi]], from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over {{convert|60|mi|sigfig=1}}. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again [[Ptolemy II]], who made a trench {{convert|100|ft|sigfig=1}} wide, {{convert|30|ft|sigfig=1}} deep and about {{convert|35|mi|round=5}} long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.<ref>The Elder Pliny and John Healey ''Natural History'' (6.33.165) Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (5 February 2004) {{ISBN|978-0-14-044413-1}} p.&nbsp;70 [https://books.google.com/books?id=JvyF-8NXFbIC&dq=Pliny+the+elder+sesostris+canal&pg=PA70 books.google.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424135241/https://books.google.com/books?id=JvyF-8NXFbIC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=Pliny+the+elder+sesostris+canal&source=bl&ots=t1np0DY4S3&sig=i0wzXRGizdz6DK8e6CTGA1wFcoI&hl=en&ei=BieVSv3GE-PKjAfU-OnnDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7 |date=24 April 2016 }}</ref></blockquote>
<!-- Changed double comma to single comma in the text "Next comes the [[Tyro]] tribe and, the harbour of the [[Daneoi]]" as per MOS:QUOTE's directives of typographical errors -->

In the 20th century, the northward extension of the later Darius I canal was discovered, extending from Lake Timsah to the Ballah Lakes.<ref name="WShea">Shea, William H. "A Date for the Recently Discovered Eastern Canal of Egypt", in ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', No. 226 (April 1977), pp.&nbsp;31–38.</ref> This was dated to the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt]] by extrapolating the dates of ancient sites along its course.<ref name="WShea"/>

The reliefs of the [[Land of Punt|Punt]] expedition under [[Hatshepsut]], 1470 BCE, depict seagoing vessels carrying the expeditionary force returning from Punt. This suggests that a navigable link existed between the Red Sea and the Nile.<ref>Sanford (1938), p.&nbsp;72; Garrison (1999), p.&nbsp;36.</ref> Recent [[Wadi Gawasis|excavations in Wadi Gawasis]] may indicate that Egypt's maritime trade started from the Red Sea and did not require a canal.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} Evidence seems to indicate its existence by the 13th century BCE during the time of [[Ramesses II]].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref>Hess, Richard S. Rev. of [http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles1998/0100/0114.php ''Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050429084022/http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles1998/0100/0114.php |date=29 April 2005 }}, by James K. Hoffmeier. ''The Denver Journal'' 1 (1 January 1998). Retrieved 14 May 2008.</ref><ref>Hassan, Fekri A. [http://www.e-c-h-o.org/khd/location.html Kafr Hassan Dawood On-line] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115044418/http://www.e-c-h-o.org/khd/location.html |date=15 January 2010 }}, 17 August 2003. Retrieved 14 May 2008.</ref><ref>{{in lang|es}} Martínez Babon, Javier. [http://www.realidade.com.br/rih2/egipto.htm "Consideraciones sobre la Marinay la Guerra durante el Egipto Faraónico"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201143132/http://www.realidade.com.br/rih2/egipto.htm |date=1 February 2012 }}. Retrieved 14 May 2008.</ref>

=== Canals dug by Necho, Darius I and Ptolemy ===
Remnants of an ancient west–east canal through the [[ancient Egypt]]ian cities of [[Bubastis]], [[Avaris|Pi-Ramesses]], and [[Pithom]] were discovered by [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] and his engineers and cartographers in 1799.<ref name="Rappoport"/><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fj0GAAAAQAAJ&dq=Gratien+Le+P%C3%A8re&pg=RA2-PA351 ''Descriptions de l'Égypte'', Volume 11 (État Moderne)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819064603/https://books.google.com/books?id=fj0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA351&lpg=RA2-PA351&dq=Gratien+Le+P%C3%A8re&source=bl&ots=h-ZAEgY_yZ&sig=2vmD6bS3Cj-XwCRdc_uLueFseXQ&hl=en&ei=6blFStHdO8PdsgaKxaQs&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9 |date=19 August 2020 }}, containing ''Mémoire sur la communication de la mer des Indes à la Méditerranée par la mer Rouge et l'Isthme de Sueys'', par M. J.M. Le Père, ingénieur en chef, inspecteur divisionnaire au corps impérial des ponts et chaussées, membre de l'Institut d'Égypte, pp.&nbsp;21–186</ref><ref>Their reports were published in [[Description de l'Égypte]]</ref><ref>Montet, Pierre. ''Everyday Life in the Days of Ramesses The Great'' (1981), page 184. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.</ref><ref>Silver, Morris (6 April 1998), "5c. Evidence for Earlier Canals". [https://www.angelfire.com/ms/ancecon/index.html ''Ancient Economies II''] . Retrieved 8 August 2008. Economics Department, City College of New York.</ref>

According to the ''[[The Histories of Herodotus|Histories]]'' of the [[Greeks|Greek]] historian [[Herodotus]],<ref>Herodotus ii.158.</ref> about 600 BCE, [[Necho II]] undertook to dig a west–east canal through the Wadi Tumilat between Bubastis and [[Pithom|Heroopolis]],<ref name="Rappoport"/> and perhaps continued it to the [[Heroopolite Gulf]] and the Red Sea.<ref name="Britannica"/> Regardless, Necho is reported as having never completed his project.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/>

Herodotus was told that 120,000 men perished in this undertaking, but this figure is doubtless exaggerated.<ref>"The figure '120,000' is doubtless exaggerated. [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Mehemet Ali]] lost only 10,000 in making the Mahmûdieh Canal (from the Nile to Alexandria)." remarked W. W. How and J. Wells, ''A Commentary on Herodotus''.</ref> According to [[Pliny the Elder]], Necho's extension to the canal was about {{convert|57|smi|km|order=flip|abbr=off}},<ref name="Rappoport"/> equal to the total distance between Bubastis and the Great Bitter Lake, allowing for winding through [[valley]]s.<ref name="Rappoport"/> The length that Herodotus tells, of over 1,000 [[Stadia (length)|stadia]] (i.e., over {{convert|114|mi|km|order=flip|disp=or}}), must be understood to include the entire distance between the Nile and the Red Sea<ref name="Rappoport"/> at that time.

With Necho's death, work was discontinued. Herodotus tells that the reason the project was abandoned was because of a warning received from an [[oracle]] that others would benefit from its successful completion.<ref name="Rappoport"/><ref>According to Herodotus, work on the project was "stayed by a prophetic utterance that he [Necho] was toiling beforehand for the barbarian. The Egyptians call all men of other languages [[barbarian]]s." (Herodotus, ''eo. loc.''.)</ref> Necho's war with [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] most probably prevented the canal's continuation.

Necho's project was completed by [[Darius I of Persia]], who ruled over [[Ancient Egypt]] after it had been conquered by his predecessor [[Cambyses II]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/90718/Cambyses-II|title=Cambyses II – King of Persia|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=|access-date=19 November 2013|archive-date=13 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213172623/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/90718/Cambyses-II|url-status=live}}</ref> It may be that by Darius's time a natural<ref name="Rappoport"/> waterway passage which had existed<ref name="Britannica"/> between the Heroopolite Gulf and the Red Sea<ref name="location">Apparently, [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Ptolemy]] considered the Great Bitter Lake as a northern extension of the Red Sea, whereas Darius had not, because [[Arsinoe (Gulf of Suez)|Arsinoe]] is located north of Shaluf. (See Naville, "Map of the Wadi Tumilat", referenced above.)</ref> in the vicinity of the Egyptian town of Shaluf<ref name="Rappoport"/> (alt. ''Chalouf''<ref>Please refer to [[Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions]].</ref> or ''Shaloof''<ref name="Naville"/>), located just south of the Great Bitter Lake,<ref name="Rappoport"/><ref name="Naville"/> had become so blocked<ref name="Britannica"/> with [[silt]]<ref name="Rappoport"/> that Darius needed to clear it out so as to allow [[navigation]]<ref name="Rappoport"/> once again. According to Herodotus, Darius's canal was wide enough that two [[trireme]]s could pass each other with oars extended, and required four days to traverse. Darius commemorated his achievement with a number of [[granite]] [[stela]]e that he set up on the Nile bank, including one near Kabret, and a further one a few kilometres north of Suez. [[Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions]] read:<ref>{{cite web |author=Jona Lendering |url=https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/dz/ |title=Darius' Suez Inscriptions |publisher=Livius.org |access-date=21 April 2020 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806055558/https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/dz/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{blockquote|King Darius says: I am a Persian; setting out from Persia I conquered Egypt. I ordered to dig this canal from the river that is called Nile and flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended|Darius Inscription}}

The canal left the Nile at Bubastis. An inscription<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.attalus.org/docs/other/inscr_16.html|title=Pithom Stele – translation of inscription|website=attalus.org|access-date=17 December 2014|archive-date=17 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217202028/http://www.attalus.org/docs/other/inscr_16.html|url-status=live}}</ref> on a pillar at [[Pithom]] records that in 270 or 269&nbsp;BCE, it was again reopened, by [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]]. In [[Arsinoe (Gulf of Suez)|Arsinoe]],<ref name="Rappoport"/> Ptolemy constructed a [[Lock (water transport)|navigable lock]], with [[sluice]]s, at the [[Heroopolite Gulf]] of the Red Sea,<ref name="location"/> which allowed the passage of vessels but prevented salt water from the Red Sea from mingling with the fresh water in the canal.<ref>R. E. Gmirkin, "Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch", p.&nbsp;236</ref>

In the second half of the 19th century, French [[cartographer]]s discovered the remnants of an ancient north–south canal past the east side of [[Lake Timsah]] and ending near the north end of the Great Bitter Lake.<ref name="Carte hydrographique">''Carte hydrographique de l'Basse Egypte et d'une partie de l'Isthme de Suez'' (1855, 1882). Volume 87, page 803. Paris. See [http://mapy.vkol.cz/mapy/v87803.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213232635/http://mapy.vkol.cz/mapy/v87803.htm|date=13 February 2009}}</ref> This proved to be the canal made by Darius I, as his stele commemorating its construction was found at the site. (This ancient, second canal may have followed a course along the shoreline of the Red Sea when it once extended north to Lake Timsah.<ref name="Naville"/><ref name="Carte hydrographique"/>)

=== Receding Red Sea and the dwindling Nile ===
The [[Red Sea]] is believed by some [[historian]]s to have gradually receded over the centuries, its coastline slowly moving southward away from [[Lake Timsah]]<ref name="Columbia"/><ref name="Naville"/> and the Great Bitter Lake.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/> Coupled with persistent accumulations of Nile [[silt]], maintenance and repair of Ptolemy's canal became increasingly cumbersome over each passing century.

Two hundred years after the construction of Ptolemy's canal, [[Cleopatra VII|Cleopatra]] seems to have had no west–east waterway passage,<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/> because the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which fed Ptolemy's west–east canal, had by that time dwindled, being choked with silt.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Rappoport"/> In support of this contention one can note that in 31 BCE, during a reversal of fortune in [[Mark Antony]]'s and Cleopatra's war against [[Octavian]], she attempted to escape Egypt with her fleet by raising the ships out of the Mediterranean and dragging them across the isthmus of Suez to the Red Sea. Then, according to [[Plutarch]], the [[Arab]]s of [[Petra]] attacked and burned the first wave of these ships and Cleopatra abandoned the effort.<ref>Plutarch, "Life of Antony", 69.</ref> (Modern historians, however, maintain that her ships were burned by the enemy forces of [[Malichus I]].)<ref>Burstein, Stanley M. (2004), ''The Reign of Cleopatra'', Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, {{ISBN|978-0-313-32527-4}}, p.31.</ref><ref>Roller, Duane W. (2010), ''Cleopatra: a Biography'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-536553-5}}, p. 142.</ref>

=== Cairo to the Red Sea ===
The ancient canal was re-excavated by [[Roman Empire|Roman]] emperor [[Trajan]] in the first century AD, who named it {{Lang|lt|Amnis Traianus}} after himself. He reportedly moved its mouth on the Nile further south, at the site of what is now [[Old Cairo]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-9ZjDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 |title=Babylon of Egypt: The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-977-416-731-7 |pages=35–40 |language=en}}</ref> By the time of the [[Arab conquest of Egypt|Arab conquest]] in 641 AD, this canal had fallen out of use.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Raymond |first=André |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdLALt9AbQQC |title=Cairo |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-674-00316-3 |pages=15–16 |language=en |translator-last=Wood |translator-first=Willard |orig-date=1993}}</ref> The commander of the Muslim force, [[Amr ibn al-As]], ordered that it be restored so as to improve connections between Egypt and [[Medina]], the Muslim capital at the time. The Muslim canal was excavated further north from Trajan's canal, joining the Nile close to what is now the Sayyida Zaynab neighbourhood of Cairo.<ref name=":5" /> This canal reportedly ended near modern [[Suez]].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref>[[August Heinrich Petermann|Petermann, A.]] ''Karte Der Bai Von Súes'' (1856). Nach der Engl. Aufnahme v. Comm. Mansell.</ref> The site of the former Roman channel near the Nile was absorbed into the new city of [[Fustat]].<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" />

A geography treatise [[Dicuil#De mensura Orbis terrae|''De Mensura Orbis Terrae'']] written by the Irish monk [[Dicuil]] (born late 8th century) reports a conversation with another monk, Fidelis, who had sailed on the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the first half of the 8th century.<ref>[[Barbara Tuchman|Tuchman, Barbara]] ''Bible and Sword: How the British came to Palestine'' MacMillan, London (1987) {{ISBN|0-333-33414-0}}</ref>

The [[Abbasid]] caliph [[al-Mansur]] is said to have ordered this canal closed in 767 to prevent supplies from reaching [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabian]] detractors.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref name="Rappoport" /> The [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] caliph [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah|al-Hakim]] is claimed to have repaired the Cairo to Red Sea passageway, but only briefly, circa 1000 CE, as it soon "became choked with sand".<ref name="Rappoport" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is old and vague, please use a clearer and/or more recent reliable source([[WP:RS]]).|date=February 2024}} The remaining section of the canal near the Nile, known as the ''[[Khalij (Cairo)|Khalij]]'', continued to serve as part of Cairo's water infrastructure until the 19th century. In later periods, the canal was closed with a dike for much of the year and reopened during the flood season.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abu-Lughod |first=Janet L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVmYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |title=Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-691-65660-1 |pages=134 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Conception by Venice ===
The successful 1488 navigation of southern Africa by [[Bartolomeu Dias]] opened a direct maritime [[trading route to India]] and the [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]], and forever changed the balance of Mediterranean trade. One of the most prominent losers in the new order, as former middlemen, was the former spice trading center of [[Venice]].

{{Blockquote|Venetian leaders, driven to desperation, contemplated digging a waterway between the Red Sea and the Nile—anticipating the Suez Canal by almost 400 years—to bring the luxury trade flooding to their doors again. But this remained a dream.|[[Colin Thubron]], ''Seafarers: The Venetians'' (1980), p. 102}}

Despite entering negotiations with Egypt's ruling [[Mamelukes]], the [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] plan to build the canal was quickly put to rest by the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17)|conquest of Egypt in 1517]], led by Sultan [[Selim I]].<ref>Starthern, P. (2013) "The Venetians" p. 175</ref>

=== Ottoman attempts ===
During the 16th century, the Ottoman [[Grand Vizier]] [[Sokollu Mehmed Pasha]] attempted to construct a canal connecting the [[Red Sea]] and the [[Mediterranean]]. This was motivated by a desire to connect [[Constantinople]] to the [[Hajj|pilgrimage]] and [[trade routes]] of the [[Indian Ocean]], as well as by strategic concerns—as the European presence in the Indian Ocean was growing, Ottoman mercantile and strategic interests were [[Ottoman-Portuguese confrontations|increasingly challenged]], and the [[Sublime Porte]] was increasingly pressed to [[Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean|assert its position]]. A navigable canal would allow the [[Ottoman Navy]] to connect its [[Red Sea]], [[Black Sea]], and [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] fleets. However, this project was deemed too expensive, and was never completed.<ref>Ortega, Stephen (2012). "The Ottoman Age of Exploration". The Historian. 74 (1): 89.</ref><ref>Rossi, N.; Rosand, David (2013). "Italian Renaissance Depictions of the Ottoman Sultan: Nuances in the Function of Early Modern Italian Portraiture". ProQuest.</ref>

=== Napoleon's discovery of an ancient canal ===
During the [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria]] in late 1798, [[Napoleon]] expressed interest in finding the remnants of an ancient waterway passage. This culminated in a cadre of [[archaeologist]]s, scientists, [[cartographer]]s and engineers scouring northern Egypt.<ref name="Linda Hall">{{cite book|first=Linda|last= Hall|publisher=Kansas City, Missouri|url=http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/napoleon/suez_canal.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214040954/http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/napoleon/suez_canal.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 February 2009|title=The Search for the Ancient Suez Canal }}</ref><ref>Please refer to [[Description de l'Égypte]].</ref> Their findings, recorded in the ''[[Description de l'Égypte]]'', include detailed maps that depict the discovery of an ancient canal extending northward from the Red Sea and then westward toward the Nile.<ref name="Linda Hall"/><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fj0GAAAAQAAJ&dq=Gratien+Le+P%C3%A8re&pg=RA2-PA351 ''Descriptions de l'Égypte'', Volume 11 (État Moderne)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819064603/https://books.google.com/books?id=fj0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA351&lpg=RA2-PA351&dq=Gratien+Le+P%C3%A8re&source=bl&ots=h-ZAEgY_yZ&sig=2vmD6bS3Cj-XwCRdc_uLueFseXQ&hl=en&ei=6blFStHdO8PdsgaKxaQs&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9 |date=19 August 2020 }}, containing ''Mémoire sur la communication de la mer des Indes à la Méditerranée par la mer Rouge et l'Isthme de Sueys'' [''Memorandum on Communication from the Indian Sea to the Mediterranean by the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez''], par M. J.M. Le Père, ingénieur en chef, inspecteur divisionnaire au corps impérial des ponts et chaussées, membre de l'Institut d'Égypte, pp.&nbsp;21–186</ref>

After becoming Emperor of France in 1804, Napoleon contemplated the construction of a north–south canal to connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.  By avoiding the silt-laden Nile, such a canal would be easier to maintain.  But the plan was abandoned because of the erroneous belief that the Red Sea was {{cvt|8.5|m|ft|0}} higher than the Mediterranean, and the waterway would thus require the costly and time-consuming construction of locks to operate.  This was the result of using fragmentary survey measurements taken during the aforementioned war.{{sfn|Wilson|1939}}

As late as 1861, the unnavigable ancient route discovered by Napoleon from [[Bubastis]] to the Red Sea still channelled water as far east as [[Kassassin]].<ref name="Rappoport"/>