From Suez to Panama

These two channels have forever changed the face of the earth, linked 95% of the area of ??the planet. For both projects had been involved in one and the same person who was neither an engineer nor a builder, but differed irrepressible ambition and behaved as a typical adventurer. If you believe the "father of history" Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians when Pharaoh Necho XXVI Dynasty II, son Psammetichus I, began to dig a channel that was supposed to connect the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The ancient Greek writer reported that its length was four days of sailing. But against the best ideas strike the priests of the temple of the goddess Bastet, joy and love, who did not want to pilgrims on the surface of the water easily and comfortably reach the sanctuary of her rival, the goddess Ishtar. In addition, advisors scared of Pharaoh so that the channel will barbarians to go straight to the heart of Egypt. Connect Europe to Asia was not possible to the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy II Philadelphus, or to the Persian king Darius I, nor the Roman emperor Trajan. Over the next eleven centuries had almost dug canal was buried under a layer of sand. In 642, the Arab commander and governor of the Caliph 'Amr ibn al - Asi commanded to build a new town, later named Cairo. Trade began to boil, but Amr had not returned from another military campaign, and his successor, fearing for his life (he displeased the caliph sent to Egypt Flotilla), ordered the channel to fall asleep forever. It was only after more than a thousand years, when North Africa came the Europeans, about the channel remembered again. Appropriate instructions during the Egyptian campaign was General Directorate Napoleon Bonaparte. True, as a whole suffered a failure of the military campaign, and this construction project. The British ousted the French from Egypt, and instead of laying ship canal made the concession to build a railroad from Alexandria to Cairo. To the way any human being who would pave the intent on the marine route from the Mediterranean to India, got up to full power of the British Empire. But the muse of history Clio all - still found a man stepped this barrier.