The History of the Suez Canal: Every Year

The video I had planned needed to be pushed to next week so enjoy this one instead!

Not the 2021 crisis in the intro 😭

Britain 1936: Ok you can have your country back I guess Britain 1939: Nevermind

I was expecting the 2021 Evergreen canal incident to be here.

Fun fact: during the time between 6 days war to the Yom Kippur war there was bunch of ships that got stock in it because Egypt blocked the coasts of the Suez and they were there for 6 years until let out and formed something of a community

Amazing how one thing can revolutionize travel.

Fun fact about the Suez Canal, it almost had a version of the Statue of Liberty! As the Suez Canal neared completion, French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi tried to convince Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Egyptian government to let him build a sculpture called “Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia” at its Mediterranean entrance. Inspired by the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, Bartholdi envisioned a nearly 90-foot-tall statue of a woman clothed in Egyptian peasant robes and holding a massive torch, which would also serve as a lighthouse to guide ships into the canal. The project never materialized, but Bartholdi continued shopping the idea for his statue, and in 1886 he finally unveiled an approximately 151-foot statue (including the pedestal's foundation, it's approximately 305 feet) in New York Harbor based off Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty. And a fleet of ships was once stranded in the canal for more than eight years! During June 1967’s Six Day War between Egypt and Israel, the Suez Canal was shut down by the Egyptian government and blocked on either side by mines and scuttled ships. At the time of the closure, 15 international shipping vessels were moored at the canal’s midpoint at the Great Bitter Lake. They would remain stranded in the waterway for eight years, eventually earning the nickname the “Yellow Fleet” for the desert sands that caked their decks. Most of the crewmembers were rotated on and off the stranded vessels on 3-month assignments, but the rest passed the time by forming their own floating community and hosting sporting and social events. As the years passed, the fleet even developed its own stamps and internal system of trade. The 15 marooned ships were finally allowed to leave the canal in 1975. By then, only two of the vessels were still seaworthy enough to make the voyage under their own power.

I used to really like this type of videos, but recently I tried to make one and realized how hard it truly is. Now I appreciate them so much more, thank you for this task.

The engineering behind the Suez Canal is incredible: Construction involved the excavation and dredging of 74 million cubic meters (97 million cubic yards) of sediments! The Suez Canal presents an excellent instance where the difficulties prompted the discovery of means to overcome them. Paul Borel and Alexandre Lavalley, who took over the work in 1865, recognized that the contract could only be achieved by the aid of machinery. They accordingly devised those extraordinary dredgers to suit such difficulties. The dredgers varied in size according to the work for which they were required, and the disposal of the dredged materials. Dredgers came in different sizes, the smaller dredgers were 15-horse power, next came intermediate size dredgers, then followed the largest machines of 75-horse power. The largest dredgers were 110 feet in length, with a 27 feet beam, and had drums 48 feet above the water-line. The portion from Port Said to Lake Manzala, a 20 miles distance, represented the first engineering challenge. This part was about 5 feet deep with the lake bottom consisting of very soft clay resulting from the rich Nile deposits. The problems were the excavation of the mud, the construction and foundation of the canal banks on very weak soil, and the use of the excavated material for bank construction. They utilized local labor to scoop up large masses and squeezed the water out by pressing it against their chests, then laid it in lumps one over the other. By doing this a small channel 12 feet wide was formed. This channel allowed dredgers to work, and the operation soon reached below the mud to the stiff clay. The soft clay was allowed to dry in the sun before another layer was added. This provided for cohesion to increase. When finished, the banks stood six feet high above water. The sun cooperated and baked the whole into a firm solid mass, so firm that the banks were used as roads where heavy loads were transported. The cutting in the Serapeum plateau offered the most extraordinary difficulties, which the contractor was unable to overcome. Manual labor failed to make the enormous cuttings, so the idea was to excavate using dredgers. The contractors banked up the Canal at the point to which the Mediterranean Sea water had been brought, scooped out the remainder to a certain depth by manual labor, banked this up at the end next to the Bitter Lakes and turned the Fresh Water Canal into the excavation. Then the dredgers were brought into play, which were originally forwarded by means of the Maritime Canal from Port Said to Ismailia. There they passed through the locks into the Fresh Water Canal, which raised them seventeen feet above the sea level. A cross-cutting was then made from the Fresh Water Canal to the line of the works on the Maritime Canal, by which the machines were floated into their respective positions at this superior elevation. When these dredgers had dredged to the required depth, the connection with the Fresh Water Canal was closed and the dam in the line of the Suez Canal removed. By this means the level of the Fresh Water Lake fell to that of the sea level. The dredgers descending at the same time continued to dredge the canal to its final prescribed depth. The final stretch of 12 miles near the Red Sea towards Suez was also dredged using fresh water through a junction with the Fresh Water Canal. In doing so, the dredgers were independent of the high tide of the Red Sea.

After 150 years, the regional power "Under Construction" still holds sway in Egypt

Most deadass history ever when 2021 rolls around

The peace with Egypt did not accelerate the Israeli withdrawal from sini in made it happen. Partial withdrawal started before the peace agreement but it was never intended to be complete.

Are you planning a content about cities, their growth, changing layout of street and/or public transport?

I once rudely asked for this video and he said he would release it later and here it is 😊

Another masterpiece from EmperorTigerStar.

Great video, most people don't know about the great nation of Under Construction, a short lived country that spanned from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea until it was defeated by the Ottomans

I’m surprised many people didn’t knew that it was the French who built the canal, even though it was the British who controlled it for 74 years

you should have included the 2021 crisis

Nice video!

No mention of the canal being impassable for 8 years?