Editing Suez Canal (section)

=== Interim period ===
[[File:Suez1856.jpg|thumb|[[Bathymetric chart]], northern [[Gulf of Suez]], route to [[Old Cairo|Cairo]], 1856]]

Despite the construction challenges that could have been the result of the alleged difference in sea levels, the idea of finding a shorter route to the east remained alive. In 1830, General [[Francis Rawdon Chesney|Francis Chesney]] submitted a report to the British government that stated that there was no difference in elevation and that the Suez Canal was feasible, but his report received no further attention. [[Thomas Fletcher Waghorn|Lieutenant Waghorn]] established his "Overland Route", which transported post and passengers to India via Egypt.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wilson Sir Arnold T. |url=http://archive.org/details/suezcanal032262mbp |title=The Suez Canal |date=1939 |publisher=Oxford University Press. |others=Osmania University, Digital Library Of India}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Addison|first=Herbert|date=1 April 1958|title=Thomas Waghorn and the overland route|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/03068375808731637|journal=Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society|volume=45|issue=2|pages=179–185|doi=10.1080/03068375808731637|issn=0035-8789|access-date=24 March 2021|archive-date=27 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327124336/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03068375808731637|url-status=live}}</ref> The usefulness of this route for the British Empire was shown when dealing with the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], with 5,000 British troops having passed through Egypt.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Parry |first=Jonathan |date=2021-03-31 |title=Suez canal: what the 'ditch' meant to the British empire in the 19th century |url=https://theconversation.com/suez-canal-what-the-ditch-meant-to-the-british-empire-in-the-19th-century-158169 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds|Linant de Bellefonds]], a French explorer of Egypt, became chief engineer of [[Egyptian Public Works|Egypt's Public Works]]. In addition to his normal duties, he surveyed the [[Isthmus of Suez]] and made plans for the Suez Canal. French [[Saint-Simonianism|Saint-Simonianists]] showed an interest in the canal and in 1833, [[Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin]] tried to draw [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali's]] attention to the canal but was unsuccessful. [[Alois Negrelli]], the [[Italians|Italian]]-[[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] railroad pioneer, became interested in the idea in 1836.

In 1846, Prosper Enfantin's [[Société d'Études du Canal de Suez]] invited a number of experts, among them [[Robert Stephenson]], Negrelli and [[Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue]] to study the feasibility of the Suez Canal (with the assistance of Linant de Bellefonds). Bourdaloue's survey of the isthmus was the first generally accepted evidence that there was no practical difference in elevation between the two seas. Britain, however, feared that a canal open to everyone might interfere with its [[British Raj|India]] trade and therefore preferred a connection by train from [[Alexandria]] via [[Cairo]] to Suez, which Stephenson eventually built.