The History of the Suez Canal: Every Year 

The video I had planned needed to be pushed to next week so enjoy this one instead!

Not the 2021 crisis in the intro 😭

Britain 1936: Ok you can have your country back I guess Britain 1939: Nevermind

I was expecting the 2021 Evergreen canal incident to be here.

Fun fact: during the time between 6 days war to the Yom Kippur war there was bunch of ships that got stock in it because Egypt blocked the coasts of the Suez and they were there for 6 years until let out and formed something of a community

Amazing how one thing can revolutionize travel.

Fun fact about the Suez Canal, it almost had a version of the Statue of Liberty! As the Suez Canal neared completion, French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi tried to convince Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Egyptian government to let him build a sculpture called “Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia” at its Mediterranean entrance. Inspired by the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, Bartholdi envisioned a nearly 90-foot-tall statue of a woman clothed in Egyptian peasant robes and holding a massive torch, which would also serve as a lighthouse to guide ships into the canal. The project never materialized, but Bartholdi continued shopping the idea for his statue, and in 1886 he finally unveiled an approximately 151-foot statue (including the pedestal's foundation, it's approximately 305 feet) in New York Harbor based off Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty. And a fleet of ships was once stranded in the canal for more than eight years! During June 1967’s Six Day War between Egypt and Israel, the Suez Canal was shut down by the Egyptian government and blocked on either side by mines and scuttled ships. At the time of the closure, 15 international shipping vessels were moored at the canal’s midpoint at the Great Bitter Lake. They would remain stranded in the waterway for eight years, eventually earning the nickname the “Yellow Fleet” for the desert sands that caked their decks. Most of the crewmembers were rotated on and off the stranded vessels on 3-month assignments, but the rest passed the time by forming their own floating community and hosting sporting and social events. As the years passed, the fleet even developed its own stamps and internal system of trade. The 15 marooned ships were finally allowed to leave the canal in 1975. By then, only two of the vessels were still seaworthy enough to make the voyage under their own power.

I once rudely asked for this video and he said he would release it later and here it is 😊

I used to really like this type of videos, but recently I tried to make one and realized how hard it truly is. Now I appreciate them so much more, thank you for this task.

The engineering behind the Suez Canal is incredible: Construction involved the excavation and dredging of 74 million cubic meters (97 million cubic yards) of sediments! The Suez Canal presents an excellent instance where the difficulties prompted the discovery of means to overcome them. Paul Borel and Alexandre Lavalley, who took over the work in 1865, recognized that the contract could only be achieved by the aid of machinery. They accordingly devised those extraordinary dredgers to suit such difficulties. The dredgers varied in size according to the work for which they were required, and the disposal of the dredged materials. Dredgers came in different sizes, the smaller dredgers were 15-horse power, next came intermediate size dredgers, then followed the largest machines of 75-horse power. The largest dredgers were 110 feet in length, with a 27 feet beam, and had drums 48 feet above the water-line. The portion from Port Said to Lake Manzala, a 20 miles distance, represented the first engineering challenge. This part was about 5 feet deep with the lake bottom consisting of very soft clay resulting from the rich Nile deposits. The problems were the excavation of the mud, the construction and foundation of the canal banks on very weak soil, and the use of the excavated material for bank construction. They utilized local labor to scoop up large masses and squeezed the water out by pressing it against their chests, then laid it in lumps one over the other. By doing this a small channel 12 feet wide was formed. This channel allowed dredgers to work, and the operation soon reached below the mud to the stiff clay. The soft clay was allowed to dry in the sun before another layer was added. This provided for cohesion to increase. When finished, the banks stood six feet high above water. The sun cooperated and baked the whole into a firm solid mass, so firm that the banks were used as roads where heavy loads were transported. The cutting in the Serapeum plateau offered the most extraordinary difficulties, which the contractor was unable to overcome. Manual labor failed to make the enormous cuttings, so the idea was to excavate using dredgers. The contractors banked up the Canal at the point to which the Mediterranean Sea water had been brought, scooped out the remainder to a certain depth by manual labor, banked this up at the end next to the Bitter Lakes and turned the Fresh Water Canal into the excavation. Then the dredgers were brought into play, which were originally forwarded by means of the Maritime Canal from Port Said to Ismailia. There they passed through the locks into the Fresh Water Canal, which raised them seventeen feet above the sea level. A cross-cutting was then made from the Fresh Water Canal to the line of the works on the Maritime Canal, by which the machines were floated into their respective positions at this superior elevation. When these dredgers had dredged to the required depth, the connection with the Fresh Water Canal was closed and the dam in the line of the Suez Canal removed. By this means the level of the Fresh Water Lake fell to that of the sea level. The dredgers descending at the same time continued to dredge the canal to its final prescribed depth. The final stretch of 12 miles near the Red Sea towards Suez was also dredged using fresh water through a junction with the Fresh Water Canal. In doing so, the dredgers were independent of the high tide of the Red Sea.

After 150 years, the regional power "Under Construction" still holds sway in Egypt

Most deadass history ever when 2021 rolls around

The peace with Egypt did not accelerate the Israeli withdrawal from sini in made it happen. Partial withdrawal started before the peace agreement but it was never intended to be complete.

Are you planning a content about cities, their growth, changing layout of street and/or public transport?

Another masterpiece from EmperorTigerStar.

Great video, most people don't know about the great nation of Under Construction, a short lived country that spanned from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea until it was defeated by the Ottomans

I’m surprised many people didn’t knew that it was the French who built the canal, even though it was the British who controlled it for 74 years

Nice video!

France : *Build the Suez canal* UK : *YOINK*

Hey, I’ve recently seen your vid on Zanzibar and noticed it only started in the 18/19th century. It’s a lot more tricky but you should try and make history map video on the arabization of east-Africa

you should have included the 2021 crisis

Darius's Suez inscription comprise five Egyptian monuments, including the Chalouf Stele, that commemorate the construction and completion of the canal linking the Nile River with the Red Sea by Darius I of Persia were located along the Darius Canal through the valley of Wadi Tumilat and probably recorded sections of the canal as well.

Darn, I expected a history of the disruptions to be included. =P

One question, is it allowed to use your work "Steppe Walk" in my own videos, because of copyright

Love your stuff

Good video.

No mention of the canal being impassable for 8 years?

That canal caused and still causes serious environmental issues. Especially in regard to the ocean ecologic system.

Great work 👏👏👏

Egypt got independence from ottomans in 1867

Yesterday Mali annexed a part of Mauritania could u make a vid on it

Amazing how a good chunk of the canal was constructed in 2 years by the Ottomans, who were riddled with problems at the time. I assume that the construction used lots of previous smaller canals etc. , especially when compared to the Panama canal and other projects that were extremely costly or even utterly failed.

nice vid tigerstar

I like how the most interesting parts only related to the suez canal because it was there

Perhaps a video on the Finnish Civil War of 1918?

U was half expecting a massive ship in the middle in 2021 in black called "Evergreen"

cool

Long live my country, Egypt 🇪🇬🇵🇸🇪🇬🇵🇸❤️❤️❤️

No canal of kings :(

Does it still belong to the uk?

120,000 out of 1.5 million workers of my people died in building this canal, The Egyptians irritated this canal with their blood

in 1939 egypt chose neutrality, this angered the british who punished them severely

1936-1939 we believe in Neutrality as a free and independent nation. 1940 💀

it's impossible to make a mapping videos with dates before 1985 that doesn't have a British Empire in it

Pls make history of samudra pasai sultanate😊 Oh ya salam dari Indonesia🇮🇩

No mention of the canal being impassible for 8 years with ships being stuck inside and when another war happened the Israelis sunk the American ship stuck in the canal, the evergiven incident, or the current state of it being impassable due to Houthi attacks

1:29 truly a britsh moment

Panama Canal video next?

I want you to make video about history of wall borders in world every year

mistake 2:07 Suez city was not captured by Israel

Suez canal belongs to me

Can't believe the Suez isn't owned by the British and the French anymore. Played many historical games and it's weird to think how Egypt owns it now

I once talked with someone who said Anwar Sadat purposely surrendered to Israel to purge the army when they claimed they could’ve won the war. And like, I have no idea how they think even retaking Suez City would win them the Yom Kippur war since they had a whole Sinai to go through after.

It looks like the border between Poland and Germany 😮

Houthis: 🗿

Can you do COVID-19 pandemic Every Day with the format like The Major Plague in History video you did, please ❤

>History of the Suez Canal >No mention of the French

Expecting some peaceful comments

Egypt: wow I was neutral Houthis:HA Egypt: shut your mouth because Yemen is your homeland and im taking it now

where is the urabi revolution?

Wish you marked me on the map

Not the Evergiven in the intro

*Egypt expels France and Britain* France and Britain: How dare they expel us from the Suez Canal, which passes entirely through their lands and which they dug themselves?

should have included the boat in the map

May God have mercy on President Gamal Abdel Nasser, restore our channel, which is dear to us

Suez canel was built by Darius the Great in 500 bc not Europeans in 19s century

Ironic how when the French built the Canal, English opposed them. And then it became the most important location to hold, for british empire.

You missed thousands of years of history here. The ancient egyptians had already built this one. Multiple times

Evergreen lmao

1:59 Woooow Israel 50% Suez Canal. 😢 Emotional !!! 🇪🇬🇮🇱

🇬🇧 im giving you independence 🇪🇬 cool. 🇬🇧 nvm i changed my mind 🇪🇬 😤

Ottomans give up Egypt.

Houthis blockaded Red Sea

700th like nice

Nassir the only grate arab leader if only we lisond to him

First

It belongs to Britain, oh well I guess the Israeli's can have it in the future.

Still ashamed that they let Israel cross it in the Yom Kippur War...

The history of the greatest waterway in the world This is not strange, after all, it is part of the greatest country in the world Greetings from Egypt 🇪🇬

‏‪2:03‬‏ who is mighty israel?

Bro is ran out of ideas

Israeli bots: