Editing Necho II (section)

===Ambitious projects===
{{See also|Suez Canal#History}}
At some point during his Syrian campaign, Necho II initiated but never completed the ambitious project of cutting a navigable [[canal]] from the [[Pelusium|Pelusiac]] branch of the [[Nile]] to the [[Red Sea]]. [[Canal of the Pharaohs|Necho's Canal]] was the earliest precursor of the [[Suez Canal]].<ref>Redmount, Carol A. "The Wadi Tumilat and the "Canal of the Pharaohs"" ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'', Vol. 54, No. 2 (April , 1995), pp. 127-135</ref> It was in connection with a new activity that Necho founded a new city of ''Per-Temu Tjeku'' which translates as 'The House of [[Atum]] of Tjeku' at the site now known as [[Tell el-Maskhuta]],<ref>Shaw, Ian; and Nicholson, Paul. The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. The British Museum Press, 1995. p.201</ref> about 15&nbsp;km west of [[Ismailia]]. The waterway was intended to [[Ancient Egyptian trade|facilitate trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean]].

Necho also formed an Egyptian navy by recruiting displaced Ionian Greeks. This was an unprecedented act by the pharaoh since most Egyptians had traditionally harboured an inherent distaste for and fear of the sea.<ref>Peter Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Thames and Hudson, 1994, p.196</ref> The navy which Necho created operated along both the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts.<ref>[[Herodotus]] 2.158; [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] N.H. 6.165ff; [[Diodorus Siculus]] 3.43</ref> Necho II constructed warships,<ref>The Cambridge Ancient History. Edited by John Boardman, N. G. L. Hammond. p49</ref> including questionably [[triremes]].<ref>''Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization''. By Richard Miles. Penguin, Jul 21, 2011. p1781</ref>