France, by contrast, passed a law this week giving the government the power not just to control people's movements, but also to manage prices and requisition goods.
Napoleon then came to Egypt at the end of the 18th century and also thought building a canal here would be a good idea and so decided to survey the land.
For example, by weight, Britain shipped more horse feed than ammunition to the western front in the first world war; 20 years later Hitler enlisted some 2.7m horses in the second.
For one thing, it would require the eviction of many nearby residents in the seizing of private lands along the coast, something that many locals depend upon for their livelihoods.
No one knows how the new capital will affect Cairo. Many government buildings in the city are large homes taken by the socialist governments in the 1950s and 60s.
And by 1981, government is using the power of eminent domain to wipe out an entire working-class neighborhood in Detroit just because GM wants to build a factory there.
The Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has expropriated about 100,000 hectares of land to move forward construction of a multi-billion dollar railway project known as the Mayan Train.