The Suez Canal
The Suez Canal, west of the Sinai Peninsula, is a 118-mile (163-kilometer) maritime canal in Egypt between Suez on the Red Sea and Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea. The canal allows two-way north-south water transport from Europe to Asia without circumnavigating Africa. Before the construction of the canal, some transport was conducted by offloading ships and carrying the goods over land between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The canal comprises two parts, north and south of the Great Bitter Lake, linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea. The canal has no locks because there is no sea-level difference and no hills to climb. It allows the passage of ships of up to 150,000 tons displacement, with cargo. It permits ships of up to 50 feet (15 meters) draft to pass, and improvements are planned to increase this to 72 feet (22 meters) by 2010 to allow supertanker passage. Presently supertankers can offload part of their cargo onto a canal-owned boat and reload at the other end of the canal. Some 25,000 ships pass through the canal each year, about 14% of world shipping. Giuseppe Verdi’s opera masterpiece Aida, written to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal, was completed too late for the 1869 opening and premiered at the Cairo Opera House in 1871.
Suez Canal History
The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade, playing an important role in increasing European penetration and colonization of Africa. Said Pasha's successor, Isma'il Pasha, sold his country's share in the canal to the United Kingdom in 1875. The Convention of Constantinople in 1888 declared the canal a neutral zone under the protection of the British. Under the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the United Kingdom insisted on retaining control over the canal. In 1951, Egypt repudiated the treaty, and by 1954 Great Britain had agreed to pull out. After the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew their pledge to support the construction of the Aswan Dam, President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal. This caused Britain, France, and Israel to invade in the week-long 1956 Suez War. As a result of damage and sunken ships, the canal was closed until April 1957. A United Nations force (UNEF) was established to maintain the neutrality of the canal and the Sinai Peninsula. After the Six Day War in 1967, the canal was closed until June 5, 1975. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the canal was the scene of a major crossing by the Egyptian army into Israeli-controlled Sinai; later, the Israeli army crossed the canal westward. A UN peacekeeping force has been stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1974.
posted by Hills @ 8:48 AM
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