The Suez Canal: Egypt's Other Great Engineering Feat

The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, is a 193-kilometer artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, cutting the sea route between Europe and Asia by roughly 7,000 kilometers compared to sailing around Africa — one of the most consequential pieces of infrastructure in modern global trade history, and Egypt's answer to the ancient world's Pyramids in terms of sheer engineering ambition, just built 4,500 years later.

Its construction took a decade and came at real human cost, using forced labor for much of the project under the rule of Khedive Ismail, before international pressure shifted the workforce toward paid labor. Egypt nationalized the canal in 1956 under President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a defining moment in modern Egyptian history that triggered the Suez Crisis, a major Cold War-era international conflict — the canal has remained under full Egyptian control and operation ever since, and canal fees are a significant, ongoing source of national revenue.

Today roughly 12% of global trade volume passes through the canal, and a major expansion project completed in 2015 added a parallel channel to allow two-way traffic along part of its length, reducing transit times and increasing capacity. It's not a typical tourist stop, but the city of Ismailia along the canal, and viewing points near Port Said, offer a genuinely interesting look at massive container ships passing through the desert — a striking, very different kind of "only in Egypt" sight from the pyramids most visitors come for.