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Canal & The Society

The Suez Canal ’s role is not confined to servicing the world trade. It goes beyond that to serve the Canal Zone community ...

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Canal Characteristics & Development projects

Stages of developing the Suez Canal :

The dredging of the canal took almost 10 years using Egyptian labor, and it was opened for navigation for the first time in 17 November 1869. Its depth was about 8 meters, its water are was 304 m 2 and the largest ship load that can pass through was 5000 tons, which was typical for ships sizes in these days. As the ships developed and increased its sizes, the canal needed to be developed, which happened when it was still a foreign joint venture before being publicized to take ships with depth of 35 feet and its water area to be 1100 m 2 by the end of 1956 and when the canal was publicized by the Egyptian government on the 26th of July 1956. The Egyptian administration was keen to develop the Navigation canal even more on different stages.

In May 1962, the water area of the canal was to reach 1800 m 2 and the allowed depth to 38 feet. In June 1966, a development was to be executed on 2 stages as it was announced the depth would reach 48 and 58 feet consecutively. This program was started in February 1962, but was soon halted due to the war that erupted on the 5th of June, 1967. It was reopened for international; navigation in June 1975 after purifying it from the ships that sank in its bottom during in the 1962 and 1973 wars with the same water area and depth before it was closed.

The development projects then started by the Egyptian administration and received to  ships of a 220,000 tons load, specially after increasing the water are to 5000 m 2 and a depth of 62 feet , with a length of 190.25 km, in addition to the redesign of the canal's turns so that each one has a half radius of at least 5000 m and also dredging a new verge starting from the 17th km south of port said heading directly to the Mediterranean east of port Fouad to allow the loaded ships going north to go to the sea without passing through port said port. The Suez canal is distinguished by its stable level of water which varies very slightly having the highs tide reaching 50 cm in the north while reaching up to 2 m in the south.

The Canal depth will reach 66 feet by 2009, that this stage will enable all container vessels; about 17,000 container vessels; as well as taking all bulk vessels world wide. The Canal will be able to take in about 99 % of all methods used in world maritime transport after reaching a depth of 72 feet , as well as taking about 99% of he dead weight tons for the bulk vessels 82% of the petroleum tanks and a 100% of all the remaining types of ships used in maritime transport; specially container vessels with all its future generations; in addition to empty vessels reaching up to 560 thousand tons.

1- Navigational Channel:

Item Unit 1869 1956 1962 1980 1994 1996 2001 till now
Overall Length Km 164 175 175 190.25 190.25 190.25 190.25
Doubled Parts Km -- 29 29 78 78 78 78
Width at 11 m depth m 44 60 90 160 180/210 180/210 200/210
Water depth m 10 14 15.5 19.5 20.5 21 22.5
Max. Draft of ship Feet 22 35 38 53 56 58 62
Cross Sectional Area m 2 304 1100 1800 3600 3800/4300 3900/4500 5000
Max. Loaded ship DWT 5000 30000 80000 150000 180000 185000 220000

 

2- Cross Sectional Area:

Cross Sectional Area  

Click image to enlarge



Canal History
13th century BCE

13th century BCE, A canal is constructed between the Nile Delta and the Red Sea. For the following centuries, the canal was only partially maintained...

1854

1854, By a French initiative, the viceroy of Egypt, Said Pasha, decides for a project to build a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea...

1858

1858, La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez is formed to construct the canal.

17 Nov 1869

17 Nov 1869, With great splendour, the canal is opened for navigation. Dimensions were 22 metre in bottom width, 58 metre in surface width, and a depth of 8 metres...

2 Mar 1888

2 Mar 1888, The Convention of Constantinople guaranteed right of passage of all ships through the Suez Canal during war and peace...

13 Jun 1956

13 Jun 1956, Suez Canal Zone restored to Egypt.
26 Jul 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal.

5 Jun 1975

5 Jun 1975, Suez Canal reopened...

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Egypt Gate

Egyptian Official Sites

Tourism Information

Places, directions, travel co. and more.

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