Very probably the canal which united the Nile
to the Red Sea was begun by Sesostris, if we may believe tradition.
One thing is certain, that in the year 615 before Jesus Christ,
Necos undertook the works of an alimentary canal to the waters
of the Nile across the plain of Egypt, looking towards Arabia.
It took four days to go up this canal, and it was so wide that
two triremes could go abreast. It was carried on by Darius,
the son of Hystaspes, and probably finished by Ptolemy II.
Strabo saw it navigated: but its decline from the point
of departure, near Bubastes, to the Red Sea was so slight
that it was only navigable for a few months in the year.
This canal answered all commercial purposes to the age
of Antonius, when it was abandoned and blocked up with sand.
Restored by order of the Caliph Omar, it was definitely destroyed
in 761 or 762 by Caliph Al-Mansor, who wished to prevent the arrival
of provisions to Mohammed-ben-Abdallah, who had revolted against him.
During the expedition into Egypt, your General Bonaparte discovered
traces of the works in the Desert of Suez; and, surprised by
the tide, he nearly perished before regaining Hadjaroth,
at the very place where Moses had encamped three thousand
years before him.
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