The Ancient Suez Canal

when we think about grand canals the sewers in Panama are often the first to come to our mind however what if I told you that these were not the first of their kind [Music] [Music] since the earliest days of ancient Egypt the advantage of connecting the Nile the bitter lakes and the Gulf of Suez in the Red Sea was realized as such many a pharaoh tried yet failed to build a canal linking these bodies of water together in the 12th dynasty pharaoh Sinestro preferred also known as Sesostris attempted to join the Nile River with the bitter lakes although this project was not successful due to the construction techniques of the time being insufficient synesthete did however complete a smaller canal that made her first cataract or for now navigable the first known attempt of the construction of such a project was by the Pharaon neck / ii in the late 7th century BCE this project however was never completed as according to Herodotus neck / ii found himself engaged in a war between the Assyrians and Babylonians joining the Assyrians as an ally Necco then stopped work on the canal and turned to war he also engaged in a pitched battle at Magda los with the Syrians and conquered them and after this he took adidas which is a great city of Syria as the Assyrians lost for war and were conquered by the Babylonians neck of a second returned to Egypt having lost both the war and his canal however this would not be the last attempt to build such a canal in the late sixth century BCE Egypt had been conquered by the Persians and forever saw ambitious Darius for first tried once again to complete the canal managing to link the Nile with bitter lakes but failing to connect of a latter to the Red Sea due to elevation problems as foresee was higher than the late as recalled by Aristotle he found that the sea was higher than Berland so he first and Darius afterwards stopped making the canal Lester C should mix with a river of water and spoil it three centuries have passed empires came and went when ptolemy ii in the third century BCE revived the efforts to build the canal by this time the previous attempt by Darius had already suited up Ptolemy ordered declare it and continued the construction but unlike for others he would be the only one to succeed by this time water locks had been invented and with this technology it was finally possible to link the bitter lakes to a red sea Ptolemy finished his construction in 270 BCE and founded the city of arceneaux at the mouth of the canal in the Gulf of Suez from there up to 270 harbours would be established in the coastal for red sea some of which would grow to become important commercial centres as always thank you for watching this video be sure to LIKE and subscribe for more content and a special thanks to our patron Harry Yvette [Music]

Channel: Know History

Views: 226,957

Keywords: egypt, ancient egypt, ancient history, history, ancient, suez, canal, suez canal, egyptian history, pharaoh, necho ii, senusret iii, ptolomy ii, darius i, ancient suez canal, know, how, know how, achaemenid empire, canal of the pharaohs, bitter lakes, red sea, guld of suez, arsenoe, alexander the great, classic history

Id: SSpHXkeVk9c

Length: 3min 34sec (214 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020