The Suez Canal, featured in this learn node, is an enormous topic spanning the globe in influence, and with a story that continues over several millennia. This learnode contains 3 sources that individually and together provide a general overview and lead into other materials so you can traverse this rich subject for yourself.
The postcard that forms the title illustration, “Port Said, Steamer Traversing the Suez Canal,” is from the TIMEA collection. The postcard is displayed on a Rice Connexions unit about Places in Egypt: Lower Egypt, which gives this historical background:
Linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, this feat of engineering opened in 1869. Although not the first canal (earlier ones, though not exactly in the same location as the modern one, include ones built by Darius I and Trajan), the modern canal stretches over a hundred miles, from Port Said on the Mediterranean to Suez and the Red Sea. Its opening was the cause of international celebration and was attended by royalty from all over the world; it was also marked by the opening of the “Old” Cairo Opera House, which has since been demolished.
For general background to this vast subject a good place to begin is the Suez Canal overview at Tour Egypt! Another rich cluster of knowledge and links to more for the Suez Canal is the BBC Key map webpage for the 1956 Suez Crisis.
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