Today in History: The Suez Canal opened, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas
Since its opening 149 years ago, the Suez Canal has become one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
On this day in 1869, the Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress, Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.
In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build a 160km canal across the Isthmus of Suez. An international team of engineers drew up a construction plan, and in 1856 the Suez Canal Company was formed and granted the right to operate the canal for 99 years after completion of the work.
Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was done by hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced labourers. Later, European workers with dredgers and steam shovels arrived.
Labour disputes and a cholera epidemic slowed construction, and the Suez Canal was not completed until 1869 – four years behind schedule. On 17 November 1869, the Suez Canal was finally opened to navigation. Ferdinand de Lesseps would later attempt, unsuccessfully, to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.
When it opened, the Suez Canal was only 7,6m deep, 22m wide at the bottom, and 60-90m wide at the surface. Consequently, fewer than 500 ships navigated it in its first full year of operation.
Major improvements began in 1876, however, and the canal soon grew into the one of the world’s most heavily travelled shipping lanes. In 1875, Great Britain became the largest shareholder in the Suez Canal Company when it bought up the stock owned by the new Ottoman governor of Egypt.
Seven years later, in 1882, Britain invaded Egypt, beginning a long occupation of the country. The Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 made Egypt virtually independent, but Britain reserved rights for the protection of the canal.
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