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Almost 4000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians built waterways across the area known as the Isthmus of Suez, a stretch of land about 100 miles wide which separates Western Asia, and specifically the Sinai Peninsular from Egypt. These fell into disuse and were finally filled in completely in AD 775 after the invasion of the Arabs, recently unified under the new religion, Islam. The idea of a quick route from Europe to the east, was forgotten about for centuries, and the long and treacherous route around Cape Horn, Africa's treacherous southern tip, became the norm.

In the early nineteenth century Napoleons expedition discovered the remains of the ancient waterways and the idea was sparked anew. Napoleon was never to see the dream come to fruition though. It was in 1859, due to the genius of another Frenchman, diplomat and politician, Ferdinand de Lesseps, that work on the idea began again. A new waterway joining the Mediterranean and the Red Sea that would cut down the time to the east enormously and increase safety by eliminating the need to travel the treacherous southern seas. De Lesseps spent ten years supervising the digging of the canal which involved the moving of about 97 million cubic yards of earth.

Having established a base at Port Said, de Lesseps first task was to build a canal from the Nile to bring fresh drinking water for the 20,000 labourers that were to be employed on the project. Working from North to South the scheme involved the digging of a 24ft deep channel connecting up lakes as it went. The Great and Little Bitter Lakes were joined to the Red Sea and then flooded with sea water and these were in turn joined with Lake Timsah.

At the height of the operation 80,000 fellaheen, or peasant labourers were employed , three thousand camels carried drinking water to the work gangs, but this labour force was gradually replaced with mechanical dredgers and digging equipment.

In October 1869 the Louise-et-Marie, a French steamer became the first ship to sail its length, but the official opening was on November 17. This consisted of a sail through of a ceremonial flotilla made up of ships of almost every major European nation and the event was attended by representatives of almost every royal family of that continent.

The total length of the canal is 103 miles, 21 of them through lakes and the total cost of the project was estimated at 20 million. Although this was almost twice the original estimate it is but a tiny sum compared with the value of the canal to world trade.

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