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SHIPS

The Suez Canal saves ships from a 5,000-mile detour around Africa.

Cut through the Egyptian desert in 1869, the 120-mile canal connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea - a shortcut for global trade.

2 min read
The Suez Canal saves ships from a 5,000-mile detour around Africa.
THE FULL STORY

Before 1869, a ship traveling from Europe to India or Asia had to sail all the way around the southern tip of Africa - a journey of many extra weeks and thousands of extra miles. Then Egyptian and French engineers finished the Suez Canal, a 120-mile waterway cut straight across the desert connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

Suddenly, the same trip was thousands of miles shorter. Today about 12% of all world trade by sea - including a huge share of the oil shipped to Europe - flows through the canal. It’s wide and deep enough now for some of the biggest container ships and supertankers ever built, though the very largest still don’t fit.

The canal made news in 2021 when one container ship called the Ever Given got blown sideways in a sandstorm and wedged itself between the banks. Hundreds of ships waited behind it for nearly a week. Estimates say the blockage cost the global economy roughly $9 billion every day before tugs finally freed the giant.

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