Suez Canal remains in use from Canal of the Pharaohs day on

What would have happened if the Suez Canal were maintained from the pharaohs' time onward? The argument is that its assistance in trade is worth the work needed to maintain it.
 
The Canal of the Pharaohs was maintained on and off until 770 AD when the Abassid Caliph Abu Jafar blocked it because it was being used by his enemies for transport. No reason it couldn't be reopened at any time after that by someone with labor to spare. The shift to more northern Byzantine trade routes from Europe to India through the Caspian and Black Seas probably cut down on the demand though. I would guess that Europe was reluctant to let Islamic Egypt control the India trade.

I don't know enough about medieval Egypt to guess how its continued use would impact though. Probably not a ton since it seems to have been extremely susceptible to blockage.
 

Kaze

Banned
The British and French studied the Pharaoh's canal for their use. But the surveyors figured that the it was unsuited for ships of the time - its width was too small to allow battleships through. So the surveyors looked for a different route. The first route was into the heart of Africa with the hopes it would meet up with the Congo - after the discoveries of Burton and Speake, the first route was immediately rejected leaving the second one as the most viable option. The second route was through the current location of the Suez Canal.
 
Well, I knew about the portage route through the wadi from Nile to Red Sea, but not about the multiple, oft-seasonal canals from Nile Delta to Bitter Lakes etc.
Thank you all.
 
I won't deny, I'd love to see a major canal-building Egypt. (I argued an entire TL premise on this, using the Kushite Period). Egypt has the food, and arguably the manpower to build a "Suez Canal", but it'd take a huge amount of time to do.

But lets say that we have a major canal-building effort for this Kushite Egypt (Who were Pharaohs). You essentially now have a moat that defends Egypt, that can be fortified and readily supplied by ship, expanded up on later years, etc.

In theory, if the 25th Dynasty can achieve their canal building process (no small feat), you have fortified artificial waterways from deep in modern Sudan and across the site of Suez, that can be reinforced by sea rapidly.

Suddenly Egypt is much. MUCH harder to invade if organised. It also makes unification harder, because if someone can hold those canals, they control trade with little more than a few garrisons and enough gold and food to pay them.

But if we stick with just the Suez, it can be expanded, new canals dug, with the debris shipped out from the older canal(s). You'd probably have two large, and old, cities at either end, and a significant body of people with engineering know-how being produced all the time.

It would cost a fortune to build, but post-Bronze Age, it is a worthwhile endeavour if you also make it a security feature. It could even mean a native Egyptian or Kushite dynasty maintains control rather than Persia, or Macedon.
 
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