During Pharaonic times an artificial waterway already connected the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean. It is reported that in 1850  a canal linked an
eastern Nile arm near Ez-Zagazig with the Bitter Lakes, which at that time
were not yet separated from the Gulf of Suez. This waterway between the
two seas, which passed through the area where we find Cairo today, was silted
up at times, but reconstructed again. Between 1859 and 1869 the Suez Canal,
which runs for over 171 km without locks, was built under the supervision
of Ferdinand de Lesseps. The Egyptian Vice-King had promised to contribute
20,000 workers to the construction. He recruited the men among the fellaheen
population by force. In the hostile deserts thousands died from hunger, thirst
or cholera. The canal exclusively served Europeans in their trade with Asia
by shortening the sea journey by about 40 per cent. It has been continuously
deepened and widened. Today its fairway is about 180–205 m, while its navig-
able depth is 21 m. This allows fully loaded tankers of 170,000 gross register
tons and unloaded tankers of 400,000 gross register tons to pass through it.
However, the maximum capacity of the canal is eighty ships daily