Why no earlier Suez Canal?

[corourke]

So I was reading this website that says there was a canal that linked the Nile to the Red Sea (and obviously from there to the Mediterranean) pretty much throughout history until the Abbasids destroyed it in the 8th Century. It's also on Wikipedia.

By 250 BC, a substantial canal linked the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. It was fifty yards wide and it served ocean-going vessels. Cleopatra probably rode that canal in her royal barge, a few years before the birth of Christ.

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1257.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_canal#12th_Dynasty

Apparently, the canal was passable to ocean-traveling ships. Probably these were flat-bottomed galleys.

So why wasn't this rebuilt before the 19th century? It seems to me that the Venetians would have wanted to do this, and if not them, then why not the Ottoman Empire (who also had the added benefit of owning the land around the canal).

A canal like this could have been built at any time, and would have been incredibly useful for those in control of it. So why wasn't it built?

 

[DuQuense]

With the Collapse of the Axumites, and the Indian empires in the 7~800's the main users of the canal were gone.
Without the trade from these Europe lost touch with Africa and India so they had no reason to rebuild, and the Arab trade was land based so they had no need for it.
the Ottomans also had very little need as their focus was on the Anatolia, and South Europe/Black Sea areas.

It wasn't till Europe again came in contact with India/Asia that there was again a need for the Canal, and it was built very shortly after Europe gained control of Egypt,

 

[corourke]

There was always trade going from India to Europe, and it's really impossible to argue that an overland route would be superior to a maritime one.

 

[oberdada]

There was always trade going from India to Europe, and it's really impossible to argue that an overland route would be superior to a maritime one.

Since nobody has build Pyramids like those in Egypt for more than 2000 years (At least not in the old world),
I am not surprised !