Editing Suez Canal (section)

=== 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"/>