THE SUEZ CANAL. 



365 



so-called " River of Trajan," excavated, like the older river of Nekos, between the 

 Nile, the Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes, across the desert zone skirting the arable 

 lands. As Letronne has observed, the exploitation of the great porphyry quarries 

 at Mount Claudian would have been unintelligible, unless some waterway existed 

 between the sea and the river for forwarding the huge monoliths extracted from 

 the mountain. They could not certainly have been transported to the Nile Valley 

 over the intervening hills and rocks of the Arabian range. 



Like most of the works executed by the Romans, Trajan's Canal was made to 

 last, and in fact it was maintained for centuries. Makrizi tells us that in the early 

 period of Islam it was still accessible to vessels. After seizing Egypt, Amru had 

 little more to do than clear out the channel and restore the sluices. But he appears 

 to have harboured even more ambitious views, intending to open a canal directly 



Fig. 107.— Trajan's Canal. 

 Scale 1: 1,300,000. 





'\S - ■ ■ * 



'*-,EflypfclanMôniiivient 



E of Greenwich 32°S0 





50 



è\°20 



30 Miles. 



from the Red Sea to Farama on the shores of the Gulf of Pelusium, possibly by 

 utilising the cuttings previously made by Darius and the Ptolemies. But Omar 

 fearing, as is said, lest the Greeks might take advantage of this highway to attack 

 the pilgrims journeying to Mecca, refused to sanction the work. Nor did the 

 canal restored by Amru last very long, having been closed a hundred and thirty- 

 three years afterwards by order of the Caliph Abu Jafar-el-Mansur, to prevent some 

 rebel from receiving his supplies. 



During the interval of nearly eleven centuries from that epoch to modern times, 

 the slow work of nature gradually effaced the work of man. Houses, sluices, dams 

 disappeared ; the dykes became choked by alluvial deposits and sands, while 

 marshy depressions took the places of the embankments. The coast-line has been 

 modified round the gulfs and lagoons ; but numerous vestiges nevertheless still 



