THE FIRST SUEZ CANAL

History 2 Minutes

In 1869, the Suez Canal was finished under Ferdinand de Lesseps’s leadership. The French had wanted a shipping route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea for a long time. A shortcut from Marseilles to the Orient would give France a fine advantage over England. As early as 1800 Napoleon had surveyors looking at routes.

Napoleon was told that the Red Sea was 30 feet higher than the Mediterranean. Dig a canal, his surveyors said, and the Red Sea will hemorrhage into the Mediterranean. It’ll sweep away the Nile Delta. The survey was grossly in error, of course. French scientists tried to point out that sea level couldn’t possibly differ that much at two points only eighty miles apart.

But the damage was done; the moment had passed; only the idea wasn’t dead. It re-emerged in both England and France after Napoleon was gone. Lesseps finally dug his Suez Canal so it wandered northward from the Red Sea, following two lakes, to a mid-point. Then he dug in a straight line to the Mediterranean.

That southern leg of the Lesseps canal actually followed a vastly older canal. Napoleon had been a latecomer to the canal idea. In 500 BC, the Persian conqueror of Egypt, Darius, had begun a canal along that same route. He meant his canal to swing west at the mid-point and link with the Nile near Cairo. But Darius’s experts, like Napoleon’s, decided the Red Sea was higher than the Mediterranean. They too thought a canal would result in disaster.

Ferdinand de Lesseps

So Darius didn’t finish his canal. But the Ptolemies who followed Darius did finish it. 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.

Here the plot thickens even further: For Darius had built on the route of an earlier canal, begun in 600 BC. And that canal followed the route of an even older canal that served shipping around 1500 BC. Temple carvings show the Queen of Egypt setting out for Africa on that canal. And, as Egyptian history blends into myth, 4000 or so years in the past, it tells of still other canals.

Cleopatra’s Barge

But the Suez Canal we remember is the one built only 140 years ago by Lesseps. The crowning irony is that the French honored Lesseps so highly for his work that they gave him the job of digging a Panama Canal. But that was another matter entirely. The Panama Canal had to penetrate jungles, cross mountains, and span great fields of mud. Twenty thousand workers died, and Lesseps returned to France in failure.

Celebration of Opening of Suez Canal



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Published by NebraskaFilly

Army veteran (1976-1979), retired with entirely too much time on my hands

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92 thoughts on “THE FIRST SUEZ CANAL”

  1. Morning All!
    interesting post Filly!
    how do you think they dug those canals way back then? I mean I envision them doing it today with backhoes or whatever…being a distance away on the side kind of…but digging it by hand? gees…all that water rushing thru? they must have had a good system…

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Morning Filly!
        a little ways up the road from here in NY, there’s a large-ish pond that beavers have found. They dam the one side yearly and every year, the local municipality breaks that dam. (If left alone, with decent rains, the pond overflows and wrecks the street, creating more problems, so they break it)
        The NY crew has learned to contact the PA crew, because that water gets channeled into the stream we drive thru, but more importantly it travels further into PA farm country. the farmer near here lost a calf one year because it was in the almost dry stream bed when the water rushed thru…
        rushing water can kill…

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I remember reading the story about WHY jill biden got her doctorate…she said something along the lines of not liking mail addressed to Mr & Mrs joe biden…if she got her doctorate it would be DR & Mr biden. In other words, she wanted notoriety. i think that’s why she doesn’t put a stop to the humiliation her husband is going thru. It would stop HER fame as flotus.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/maybe_she_likes_being_first_lady_too_much.html

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I agree with the sentiments in this piece at American Thinker. It talks about the National Guardsman who is missing and presumed drowned saving an illegal woman crossing the river. This has to be stopped–they are breaking our law. if that means they drown doing so, so be it. we are not responsible for every criminal that wants to be here for free stuff. trading an American life for a criminal is NOT in our best interests. however heartless that sounds.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/the_deadly_cost_of_illegal_aliens_in_america.html

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I flipped to F&F when I got up – they had Homan on talking about that. He talked about the high numbers of deaths since the fraudulent election on the border, both our people and illegals. They are at Talladega for the race today and showed a band with the dancers all twerking! I am soooooo sick of twerking!!!!

      Liked by 2 people

        1. EXCERPT: “Twerking has actually been around for much longer than it has been in the mainstream media. The dance dates back centuries, having most likely originated somewhere in West Africa. It has an uncanny resemblance to the Mapouka dance from Côte d’Ivoire (modern versions of which can be seen here and here (a side note: if you decide to investigate this further, beware of simply typing “mapouka” into YouTube)). The Mapouka dance focuses mainly on the buttocks; the resemblance to modern-day twerking is easy to see.”
          ———————
          Twerking has long been a part of black culture; even disregarding its original cultural origins, black women were twerking in rap and R&B videos long before Miley Cyrus ever hit the stage. One of the first recorded instances of the use of the term “twerking” occurred in DJ Jubilee’s “Do the Jubilee All” from 1993 when he says, “twerk baby, twerk baby, twerk, twerk, twerk.” Other songs since then include “Whistle While You Twurk” by The Ying Yang Twins, “Twerk That Thang” by Master P, “Get Low” by Lil Jon, and many others (Destiny’s Child almost released “Twirk” but ended up deciding against it, just FYI ’cause who doesn’t love Beyonce?)

          https://sites.psu.edu/mnshermanpassion/2017/03/17/twerking-a-brief-history/

          (Yeah, no, I don’t love Beyonce!!!!!)

          Liked by 1 person

  9. This wind is going to drive me all the way around the bend…..since I was already half-way there…..I had to use earplugs to sleep last night because of it. Dropped off a bit around 5 am but it’s back at it again…..and still no rain.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. I have a ridge vent on my roof…….the access panel to my attic keeps going up and down. Even tho I have a cement block across the bottom bar of the glider in the front yard, it still blew over! I’m leaving it that way until the wind stops. I’m not too worried about the trees since they have no leaves yet, altho the big cottonwood tree always worries me.

        Liked by 2 people

  11. Hmmm….Dianne Marshall passing along fake news again, apparently. SMDH – quote: ““Also news…but not being talked about is Dominion lost its lawsuits against Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.”

    That is not true!!! This was the Smartmatic claim – Dominion’s suits are going forward. IDK if Dominion has filed suit against Sidney but I expect she is included in their lawsuits.

    Entire article @ conspatriots.com:

    “In New York, a state court ruled on Tuesday that Smartmatic could pursue its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit alleging that Fox News Network, Rudolph Giuliani, and others falsely claimed that the maker of electronic voting systems had helped rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

    New York Supreme Court Justice David Cohen rejected the requests of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation (FOXA.O), anchor Maria Bartiromo, and former anchor Lou Dobbs for dismissal of Smartmatic’s claims against them.

    Moreover, Cohen revealed that Smartmatic could pursue some claims against Giuliani, who worked as an attorney for former Republican President Donald Trump. The judge dismissed all claims against former Trump attorney Sidney Powell and Fox host Jeanine Pirro.

    According to Smartmatic, the defendants fabricated a story alleging that its technology helped Biden steal the 2020 election from Trump using its technology. It said Fox News did this to boost ratings and to take advantage of Trump supporters while avoiding losing viewers to smaller, right-wing networks Newsmax and One America News. The company said it only provided technology to Los Angeles County, where Biden won.

    The judge did not rule on the merits, but did find that Fox News may have “turned a blind eye to a litany of outrageous claims about [Smartmatic], unprecedented in the history of American elections, so inherently improbable that it evinced a reckless disregard for the truth.”

    Cohen said Giuliani’s “barrage” of criticism of Smartmatic, which he said fixed elections in Venezuela and committed “old tricks” on election night, sufficed to let some claims against him go forward. However, the judge ruled that a supposed misstatement by Pirro was not defamatory and that he did not have jurisdiction over Powell.

    Similar litigation is being pursued by Dominion Voting Systems. Its $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News was not dismissed in Delaware in December by a judge.

    According to a statement from Fox News on behalf of the defendants, Smartmatic’s claims are “baseless.”

    https://conspatriots.com/huge-win-for-sidney-powell/

    Liked by 2 people

  12. our Christmas tree still sits in its stand on our deck, waiting for hubby to load it into the tractor and take into the woods.
    Now there is a robin making a nest in it…LOL

    Liked by 2 people

          1. it’s down at the end of the ramp now–I moved it before we left–and she was squawking at me from the oak tree all the while…LOL

            Like

      1. yeah this was a walmart run…45 min there and 45 min back…then the shopping and lunch.
        erbody was out today…saw 2 masks…both older men this time–their wives were not masked
        prices going up!
        still plenty stocked…but a box a raisin bran used to be $2.98 last fall…now $3.48…50 cents jump!!
        sigh

        Liked by 1 person

  17. Liked by 2 people

  18. Entire article @ BB: “The American Library Association has elected City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center librarian and self-proclaimed “Marxist lesbian” Emily Drabinski as its president for the 2022-23 term. “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of [the American Library Association],” Drabinski tweeted on April 13.

    “I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity!” Drabinski added. Drabinski’s “vision” for the American Library Association is to build and use the “collective power” of its members to pursue a host of left-wing political issues, according to her website.

    “The consequences of decades of unchecked climate change, class war, white supremacy, and imperialism have led us here,” Drabinski said. “If we want a world that includes public goods like the library, we must organize our collective power and wield it.”

    “The American Library Association offers us a set of tools that can harness our energies and build those capacities,” she added. Drabinski also claimed that the “consequences of climate change” are a threat to libraries, and proposed a “Green New Deal for libraries” as part of her platform:

    ‘Floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other consequences of climate change threaten libraries, library workers, and library publics around the world. We must build on recent association work in this area and connect to broader public legislation in order to preserve libraries and communities for an uncertain future.’

    The new American Library Association president also promised to develop a “global vision of librarianship in which international cooperation and exchange are central to equity and justice,” insisting, “our solutions must be international too,” and calling for “cooperation beyond our borders.”

    “I will direct resources and opportunities to a diverse cross section of the association and advance a public agenda that puts organizing for justice at the center of library work,” Drabinski said.”

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Good afternoon y’all! Very busy today trying to get the kitchen finished. Just got done mounting our range hood and cutting a hole in the ceiling for the vent. Still need to run power for it in the attic. Roof vent will have to wait for now until I can go get a 6″ hole saw.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Wow! Be careful, CM! We were trying to figure out what to do about a range hood during my reno, since we completely took the wall down between the kitchen and the LR, with an island around my new gas stove. We found out the code did not require one so I was pleased not to have to go thru all that.

      Liked by 2 people

  20. Liked by 2 people

    1. Disney at it’s best

      Doctor Strange sequel reportedly banned overseas for inclusion of queer character
      11
      It would be the third recent Disney film to be banned in the country for LGBTQ characters

      Following in the steps of fellow Disney productions West Side Story and Eternals, the upcoming Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been banned in Saudi Arabia, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

      According to The Hollywood Reporter, the ban is consistent with homosexuality being illegal in the Gulf region. As a result, films that merely include LGBTQ characters often get banned in certain countries in the area. While reviewers have not yet seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the film does introduce the Marvel Comics character America Chavez, who is gay in the source material.

      While there’s not much indication as to how America (played in the film by Xochitl Gomez) will be depicted in Multiverse of Madness or how closely she’ll resemble her comic book counterpart, the character has long been depicted as simply being out and proud. It’s a refreshing and nonchalant approach to representation — especially compared to the rest of her backstory, which is heavily retconned and involves multiple universes.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. so she tricks her parole officer into signing a form saying her probation and parole are complete and she can vote, then she registers…and now it’s the parole officer’s FAULT???
      wth?????
      she bears no responsibility?
      BULLSHIT

      Liked by 2 people

  32. they are fixing our road!
    this past week they graded it somewhat…and yesterday the filled in the receding bank with HUGE rocks and soil. doesn’t look like the farmer got his electric fence back up though so it’s still hazardous imo till it all settles…they didn’t even leave traffic cones there…but it’s an improvement
    AND, they are clearing and deepening the small ditches that run along the run so any runoff from the mountains doesn’t eat away the road–it gets channeled into the pipes under the road…which eventually gets channeled into the stream

    but gonna send them a big thank you email…at least they’re working on it!

    Liked by 2 people

  35. wow…brought in and stacked 6 loads of firewood…the end of April and we need more firewood in the garage…gees!!
    but I’m all cleaned up…looking forward to doing absolutely nothing tomorrow…LOL

    Liked by 2 people

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