Present Development Phases of the Suez Canal Project

1982 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 460-465
Author(s):  
Nabil Hilaly

It is recorded that Egypt was the first country to dig a canal to promote world trade; the first canal was dug in the reign of Pharaoh Senusret III (1887–1849 B.C.), to link the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea through the Nile delta. This canal, often abandoned due to silting, was reopened for navigation by later Pharaohs and finally by Amro Ibn El Ass in A.D. 640 after which it remained open for 150 years.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo G. Albano ◽  
Anna Sabbatini ◽  
Jonathan Lattanzio ◽  
Jan Steger ◽  
Sönke Szidat ◽  
...  

<p>The Lessepsian invasion – the largest marine biological invasion – followed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 (81 years BP). Shortly afterwards, tropical species also distributed in the Red Sea appeared on Mediterranean shores: it was the dawn of what would become the invasion of several hundred tropical species. The time of the Suez Canal opening coincided with an acceleration in natural history exploration and description, but the eastern sectors of the Mediterranean Sea lagged behind and were thoroughly explored only in the second half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. Many parts are still insufficiently studied today. Baseline information on pre-Lessepsian ecosystem states is thus scarce. This knowledge gap has rarely been considered by invasion scientists: every new finding of species belonging to tropical clades has been assumed to be a Lessepsian invader.</p><p>We here question this assumption by radiocarbon dating seven individual tests of miliolids – imperforated calcareous foraminifera – belonging to five alleged non-indigenous species. Tests were found in two sediment cores collected at 30 and 40 m depth off Ashqelon, on the Mediterranean Israeli shelf. We dated one <em>Cribromiliolinella milletti </em>(core at 40 m, 20 cm sediment depth), three <em>Nodophthalmidium antillarum </em>(core at 40 m, 35 cm sediment depth), one <em>Miliolinella </em>cf. <em>fichteliana </em>(core at 30 m, 110 cm sediment depth), one <em>Articulina alticostata </em>(core at 40 m, 35 cm sediment depth) and one <em>Spiroloculina antillarum </em>(core at 30 m, 110 cm sediment depth). All foraminiferal tests proved to be of Holocene age, with a median calibrated age spanning between 749 and 8285 years BP. Only one test of <em>N. antillarum</em> showed a 2-sigma error overlapping the time of the opening of the Suez Canal, but with a median age of 1123 years BP. Additionally, a thorough literature search resulted in a further record of <em>S. antillarum</em> in a core interval dated 1820–2064 years BP in Turkey.</p><p>Therefore, these foraminiferal species are not introduced, but native species. They are all circumtropical or Indo-Pacific and in the Mediterranean distributed mostly in the eastern sectors (only <em>S. antillarum</em> occurs also in the Adriatic Sea). Two hypotheses can explain our results: these species are Tethyan relicts that survived the Messinian salinity crisis (5.97–5.33 Ma) and the glacial periods of the Pleistocene in the Eastern Mediterranean, which may have never desiccated completely during the Messinian crisis and which may have worked as a warm-water refugium in the Pleistocene; or they entered the Mediterranean Sea from the Red Sea more recently but before the opening of the Suez Canal, for example during the Last Interglacial (MIS5e) high-stand (125,000 years BP) when the flooded Isthmus of Suez enabled exchanges between the Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific fauna. The recognition that some alleged Lessepsian invaders are in fact native species influences our understanding of the invasion process, its rates and environmental correlates.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-462
Author(s):  
Hamed A. El-Serehy ◽  
Fahad A. Al-Misned ◽  
Nasser S. Abdel-Rahman ◽  
Khaled A. Al-Rasheid

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 7209-7232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efstratios Bourtsoukidis ◽  
Lisa Ernle ◽  
John N. Crowley ◽  
Jos Lelieveld ◽  
Jean-Daniel Paris ◽  
...  

Abstract. Atmospheric non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) have been extensively studied around the globe due to their importance to atmospheric chemistry and their utility in emission source and chemical sink identification. This study reports on shipborne NMHC measurements made around the Arabian Peninsula during the AQABA (Air Quality and climate change in the Arabian BAsin) ship campaign. The ship traversed the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the northern Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Gulf, before returning by the same route. The Middle East is one of the largest producers of oil and gas (O&G), yet it is among the least studied. Atmospheric mixing ratios of C2–C8 hydrocarbons ranged from a few ppt in unpolluted regions (Arabian Sea) to several ppb over the Suez Canal and Arabian Gulf (also known as the Persian Gulf), where a maximum of 166.5 ppb of alkanes was detected. The ratio between i-pentane and n-pentane was found to be 0.93±0.03 ppb ppb−1 over the Arabian Gulf, which is indicative of widespread O&G activities, while it was 1.71±0.06 ppb ppb−1 in the Suez Canal, which is a characteristic signature of ship emissions. We provide evidence that international shipping contributes to ambient C3–C8 hydrocarbon concentrations but not to ethane, which was not detected in marine traffic exhausts. NMHC relationships with propane differentiated between alkane-rich associated gas and methane-rich non-associated gas through a characteristic enrichment of ethane over propane atmospheric mixing ratios. Utilizing the variability–lifetime relationship, we show that atmospheric chemistry governs the variability of the alkanes only weakly in the source-dominated areas of the Arabian Gulf (bAG=0.16) and along the northern part of the Red Sea (bRSN=0.22), but stronger dependencies are found in unpolluted regions such as the Gulf of Aden (bGA=0.58) and the Mediterranean Sea (bMS=0.48). NMHC oxidative pair analysis indicated that OH chemistry dominates the oxidation of hydrocarbons in the region, but along the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf the NMHC ratios occasionally provided evidence of chlorine radical chemistry. These results demonstrate the utility of NMHCs as source/sink identification tracers and provide an overview of NMHCs around the Arabian Peninsula.


2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 369 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. TURAN ◽  
D. YAGLIOGLU ◽  
D. ERGUDEN ◽  
M. GURLEK ◽  
B. SONMEZ

Two specimens of the alien cardinal fish Apogon fasciatus (White, 1790) are recorded for the first time from Turkey and second time from the Mediterranean Sea. This is the fourth Indo-Pacific apogonid species documented in the Mediterranean Sea, and the introduction of this species to the eastern Mediterranean is due to migration from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Elham M. Abdelhak ◽  
Fedekar F. Madkour ◽  
Azza A. El Ganainy ◽  
Mohamed A. Abu El-Regal ◽  
Mohamed I. Ahmed

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 622-647
Author(s):  
Lucia Carminati

In April 1859, one hundred and fifty laborers gathered on Egypt’s northern shore. When pickaxes first hit the land to be parted from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, not only was the Suez Canal initiated, but the coastal city of Port Said was also born. Two more cities, Ismailia (1862) and Port Tewfik (1867), were later founded along the waterway. This article analyzes the ways in which the environment of the isthmus of Suez changed upon the digging of the canal as well as the ideas that germinated around such changes. By relying on published memoirs, travel accounts, and archival documents, I explore how Western contemporaries viewed the isthmus desert and constructed narratives around the urbanization and the peopling of the area. I argue that they sanctioned the myth that Western initiative alone could transform the isthmus sands into flower gardens, thus disregarding realities on the ground.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salem Y. Lakhal ◽  
Souad H’Mida

Israel and China have finalized a project plan initiated in 2012. This project received the green light from Israeli cabinet in March 2014. With this venture, China will build a cargo railway line connecting the port of Eilat in the Red Sea to the ports of Ashdod and Haifa on the Mediterranean coast in Israel. This project will be a shipping alternative to the Suez Canal. This statement is the corner stone of this paper and considered an hypothesis to be verified within this paper. The methodology used is based on the concept of “market position.” The main conclusion, theoretically, the Red-Med railway could be an alternative to the Suez Canal for in the 4,000 TFE Vessels containers transportation as far as costs are concerned. However, other concerns, such as the security in the Suez Canal and the risk of its shutdown, must be considered too.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-61
Author(s):  
MOHAMMAD SALMASIZADEH ◽  

The conflict between the Russian and Turkish in 1877-1878, though formed on the pretext of Russia's support for Christian nations under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, was actually part of the great scheme that European governments had begun to break up the Ottoman Empire and resolve the Eastern Question. The goals of these powers for world domination, that would sometimes results in wars among themselves, were mainly focused on expanding the territorial realm and winning economic gains. These goals were followed under the disguise of gaining freedom for Christians and securing independence for non-Turkish nations. The scientific and technological impairment of the Ottoman Empire compared to the European countries, accompanied by internal rivalries and frequent overthrow of the rulers, were some of the main weaknesses of the Ottoman state causing their demise. In the meantime, Russia was in pursue of its policy of territorial expansion and seeking access to warm waters. Russia's main objective was to obtain access to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Having control over the Straits of Bosporus and Dardanelles that were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire would have connected Russia to the center of world trade in the Mediterranean and would have freed Russia from its land blockages and frozen ports. The causality, the start, and the ramifications of these wars have been reflected in the Iranian historiography of that era. Mohammad Hassan Khan Etemad al-Saltanah, a great historian of the Nasereddin Shah Qajar Age (1848-1898), using the reports of Iranian officials in Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and two books of Montazame Nasseri and Merat al-Boldan that were translations of selected articles from the French and Ottoman newspapers have recorded this important historical event. The reasons for Iranian attention to this historical event forms part of the modern and global historiography of Iran, in which attention to the developments in the Ottoman Empire plays an important role in Iran's acquaintance with modern civilization.


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