Africa is big, really big, and for thousands of years people have dreamed of a way to cut through the narrowest part of the Sinai Peninsula

to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea to avoid sailing around Africa or crossing the desert.

In the 19th century, that dream was realized.

Since then, the canal has had its own history and has played a major role in the global economy.

Learn more about the Suis Canal.

It's shockingly ancient history

and its current role in global shipping

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The As I mentioned in the introduction, the Sioux is a surprisingly ancient history.

The origins of a canal date back to ancient Egypt.

Back then, the Egyptians weren't so concerned with connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, per se.

They could get to the Mediterranean just fine via the Nile River.

Their desire was to connect the Nile with the Red Sea. The Greek philosopher

Aristotle actually wrote about it in his treaty's meteorology. He noted, quote,

one of their kings tried to make a canal to it, for would have been of no little advantage for them for the whole reason to have been navigable.

Sastasterese has said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try, but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first and then Darius

afterwards stop making the canal lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it."

End quote. The king in question was during the 12th Dynasty approximately 3,800 years ago.

The canal known as the Canal of Pharaohs was worked on during the reigns of various Egyptian

Pharaohs over a period of centuries.

The canal of the pharaohs mostly ran east-west, connecting the easternmost branch of the Nile

Delta to the bitter lakes, which is one of the lakes in the Sinai Peninsula just north of the Red Sea.

If you look at a satellite image today of the Siouxis Canal, you'll see a green line that curves to

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