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Suez Canal started to be constructed on April 25th 1858, under the direction of the French Engineer and diplomat Ferdinand De Lesseps, and was opened to navigation on 17th November 1869.
In the beginning, the Canal had a draft of 26 feet. Since its opening it was widened and deepened in a number of times. As from 26/7/2001 ships with draft 62ft and beam 164ft can transit the Canal.
The normal average time required to cross the Canal is 16 hours for the southbound convoy and 11 hours for the northbound convoy. This difference exists because the southbound convoy has to stop at lakes in order to cross the northbound convoy, which has a non-stop passage.
Every ship transiting the Canal must comply, at all times, with convoy movements and minimum canal speed.
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Historical Outline
It is historically recorded that Egypt was the first country to dig a man-made canal across its lands to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red sea via the River Nile and its branches, and the first who dug it was Senausert III, Pharaoh of Egypt (1874 B.C.). This canal was abandoned to silting and reopened several times as follows:
The Suez Canal is actually the first canal directly linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. It was opened for international navigation on 17 November 1869. Egypt nationalized its canal on 26 July 1956 The canal was closed five times, the last time was for 8 years (1967-1975) and was reopened in 1975.
Advantages of the Suez Canal:
- Longest canal in the world with no locks
- Compared with other waterways, the percentage of accidents is almost nil.
- Navigation goes day and night
- Liable to be widened and deepened when required to cope with the
Expansion in ship sizes.
Influence of the Suez canal on world trade:
The distance between Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) and the port of Constanza (Black Sea) is 11771 miles via the Cape of Good Hope, while it is only 1698 mile via the Suez canal, thus a saving of 86% in distance is achieved.
A saving of 23% in distance is also achieved by using the SC for the trip from Rotterdam in Holland to Tokyo in Japan if compared with the route round the African coast.
7% of sea transported world trade passes through the Suez canal, 35% of this trade is loaded from and to the Red sea and Arabian gulf ports, 20% from and to the Indian and South East Asian ports and 39% from and to the Far East-area.
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