In 1832 French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps lay in a hospital bed in Alexandria, Egypt waiting to take up his post when he was given the "Description de le Egypte" to help him pass the time. The volume he picked up described the engineering study into a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea which Napoleon had commissioned in 1798. It became Lesseps dream to build the Suez Canal.
In 1855 he received a commission from Egypt to go ahead, but that was just the beginning. Raising the money and overcoming England's opposition were major obstacles but he let nothing deter him and finally in 1859 construction started. The plan was to connect five dry desert lakes which would be filled with sea water once the forty miles of sand and rock was dug out. It started with men and shovels as there was no money for equipment but that changed when Napoleon III finally gave his official backing to the project.
Ten years in the making the Suez Canal opened with great fanfare on November 17, 1869. With the Industrial Revolution and the need for raw products from the east and finished products moving from the west the canal was an immediate success.
Politics have continued to play a role in who has control of the Suez Canal, France, then Egypt, then Britain and back to Egypt where it remains today.
Ferdinard le Lesseps dream was for a canal that would be used by all nations. At the base of his statue in Port Said these words express his dream "Open the land to all nations."
I gave the book 4 1/2 stars because it is missing two appendices I would have found most interesting, the technical information on the width, depth, number of workers, actual budget figures and the like. The second world be clear maps showing the areas dug out, the five lakes and the canal. There is a gallery with photos of some of the work but not in detail.
****1/2
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