World trade is a big business.
I mean yeah, it pretty much is the economy after all and thus situating yourself near a chokepoint between two major bodies of water (à la Singapore) can be a godsend to an area's local economy.
However if I were to ask most people which is the most important waterway in the world, sure some would answer the Straights of Malacca or the South China Sea, but for most it would be a toss-up between the Panama and Suez Canals.
So in this video, we will go to be focus on the history and construction of the Suez Canal, the bigger and also much older of the two.
Like, much older.
The Suez Canal, as it currently exists, is a 193-kilometer artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said to the Red Sea at Port Tewfik.
This waterway connects the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in a way that doesn't require a ship heading between Europe and Asia either go around Africa or. . . wait for the ice to melt in the Arctic.
The canal also, unlike the Panama Canal, has no locks at all, making it much easier for some of the world's ships to slip right through and for the canal to be expanded, should the Egyptian government prioritize such a project.
This makes this little waterway between Africa and Asia one of the most revolutionary projects in the transportation world.
With this canal, a ship traveling from (for example) Port Sudan to Antalya, Turkey would only have to travel about 2,000 kilometers, without the canal going to Africa, this distance would be nearly 23,000 kilometers, meaning that by Port Sudan it would be a shorter distance by boat to Samoa.