In Chapter 2 we described the invention of the qanat in Urartu and its development in Persia. After the conquest of Egypt by Cambyse, qanats are introduced in Egypt to irrigate the oases as well as the mountainous zones situated along communication routes (the wadi Hammamat, between Thebes and the ports of the Red Sea). Traces of three qanats constructed by order of Darius I (about 500 BC) have been found in the oasis of Kharga, some 300 km to the northwest of Asswan.[127] These qanats are as deep as 75 m, with a gallery several kilometers long and a rather flat slope compared to the usual prac­tice, only about 0.5 per thousand.

Irrigation in the land of the Queen of Sheba Irrigated oases at the threshold of the desert

To the south of the Arabian peninsula, the mountains of Yemen rise to 3,000 m and capture the seasonal monsoon rains. The high valleys are therefore well watered – but the most prosperous regions are not found here. The shrubs from which incense and myrrh can be harvested are located, rather, on the edges of the arid interior desert, at about 1,200 m of altitude, in the lands of Qataban and Hadramawt. These aromatic resins become quite the fashion in all the countries of the East, in Greece, and eventual­ly in Rome, from the 8th century BC. The richness of this land, soon to be called Arabia Felix,[128] is built on incense and myrrh – their harvest, exchange, and associated control of the caravan routes that lead to the north of Arabia along the eastern edge of the great mountains.

However it is only through hard work that the kingdoms of Sheba, Qataban,

Hadramawt, and Ma’in, whose capitals are Maryab (today Ma’arib), Tamna (Hajar Kulhan), Shabwa, Yathill (Baraqish), find prosperity. Nothing is possible without water, without crops. The land between the mountains and the desert is very arid; the only sources of water are the wadis. These are normally dry, but are subject to violent floods when heavy rains fall on the high mountains from which they issue, two or three times a year between March and August. People had learned how to make use of this water resource long before incense came into fashion – very likely from the IIIrd millennium BC along the wadis of Dura, Dhana and Markha; and from the IInd millennium BC in the basin of the wadi Hadramawt (along the wadi Irma upstream of Shabwa, in particular).[129]

The water engineering techniques remained about the same through the era of pros­perity of Arabia Felix. Deflector walls, weirs and small dikes, and occasionally true dams, constructed in the beds of the wadis, direct some of the silt-laden floodwaters toward a system of branching earthen canals. These canals are provided with outtakes – stones with grooves into which beams could be slid to control the water flow. Since the canals have a much gentler slope than the wadi, the currents are slower and therefore only the finest of the sediments are diverted to the crops with the water. The fields are quadrilateral in shape and surrounded by earthen levees, the whole comprising a vast irrigated zone. Gates permit controlled flooding of the fields to a depth of several tens of centimeters. Thus two resources are being used simultaneously: the water itself, making it possible to plant as soon as the field flooding is over; and the sediments, whose

ty meters at Maryab. This accumulation of soil requires that the canal system be reworked periodically, the intakes being raised or moved further upstream so that the water can still reach the fields.

This mastery of complex hydraulic systems could not be achieved without a strong social organization. The kingdoms mentioned earlier are effectively organized and hier­archical. They are dominated by Sheba from the beginning of the 7th to the 1st century BC, under the hand of the great Sheban sovereign Karib’Il Watar, the “Karibilu king of Sheba” mentioned in texts of the Assyrian Sennacherib. The sudarabic writing is origi­nal, using an alphabet related to the Phoenician. Numerous inscriptions still exist, com­memorating for example the redistribution of irrigation water following the destruction by Karib’Il Watar of the city of Nashan, at the convergence of the wadis Madhab and Jawf (Figure 3.11):

“(Karib’Il Watar) took the rights of the king of Nashan and of Nashan to the waters of Madhab (…), took the water of dhu-Qafan at Sumhuyafa and at Nashan and grant­ed it to Yadhmurmalik, king of Haram, took from Sumhuyaga and at Nashan the canals dhat – Malikwaqih and granted them to Nabat’ali, king of Kaminahu, and at Kaminahu the waters of the canals dhat-Malikwaqih (that are) beyond the boundaries of Karib’Il, built the enclo­sure of Nasq and peopled it with Shebans.. ..”45

Another later text attests to the concession of irrigated land to a dignitary of the city of Haram (located several kilometers from Qarnaw):

“Wahab’il son of Ammidhara, of the clan of Thabaran (…), chief of the horse-mounted troops of Haram, honored Matabnatiyan, god of Thabaran, (…), when he dug, bore, and lined with stone his well, and that Yashhurmalik Nabat granted him a flooded public (?) land, of which he took possession, extending from the enclosure of Dhu-Arnab upstream to his property, and the concession that is upstream, between the canal of Dhat Batalan and the road of Ma’in, and he acquired and brought into cultivation a number of 300 (parcels).”[130]

Numerous texts also describe the construction of hydraulic works. The following extract, despite its gaps, describes the construction of a canal and dike, again in the region of Haram:

“(the person in question) bound and dug Yasim (?) with the upper canal of the plain of the city of Haram, next to (?) this canal and the tour, (…) and the land that is subject (?) to the king of Sheba (.) he granted his inscription and his dike.”[131] [132]

There are regulations to protect the waterways against thoughtless incursions. One of the earliest known is from the 5th century BC, after a certain Karib’Il Bayyin had built a runoff channel around the small city of Nasq (in Jawf, populated by Sheban colonists after the destruction of Nashan, as is referenced in one of the extracts cited above). His son is then led to issue a decree:

“Damar Alay Watar, son of Karib’Il, has decided and decreed, for Sheba and its colonists, the clearing of the water collector wall (deflector?) of the city of Nasq, that his father Karib’Il had opened according to the inscription of easement where his father delineated it in writing.

Neither watered nor arid land shall be developed therein, and no irrigated produce or crop

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shall be harvested therefrom.”

Neither the regularity nor the amplitude of the beneficial floods is guaranteed, as is clear from the following text. Thus, if two clans have neglected the practice of a ritual hunt dedicated to the god Halfan, and there is a water shortage two times in a row, the clans must carve an inscription to do penance for their sin in the hopes that Halfan will again irrigate their lands:

“The clan Anir and the clan Athar have confessed and done penance to Halfan (the principal god of Haram after the 2nd century BC) because they did not render unto him the ceremoni­al (?) hunt in the month of dhu-Mawsab when they took refuge at Yathill during the war of Hadramawt, whereas they made the pilgrimage of dhu-Samawi at Yathill and put off the cer­emonial hunt until the month of dhu-Anthar. Therefore he (the god Halfan) did not grant them water for their irrigation network from the spring to autumn, because of an extremely low quantity of water, and they will be careful not to do the same thing again.”[133]

Thanks to these irrigation systems, artificial oases flourish along the wadis Dhana (we will come back to it later) and Markha, in Hadramawt (see also Shabwa on Figure 3.10). Although these regions have the oldest irrigation infrastructure, other systems are found on the wadi Bayhan in Qataban, where a 45-km continuous ribbon of land is irri­gated and cultivated. Arabia Felix has some thirty cities between the 7th and 1st cen­turies BC, in the grand valley of Jawf and near the wadis Dhana, Ragwan, Juba, Harib, Markha, and Hadramawt. Most of these fortified cities have surface areas of from six to ten hectares; but they have neither sewers nor water supply infrastructure.

In the 1st century BC, merchants of Alexandria discover how to make an annual maritime voyage toward India, using the monsoon. This is a negative development for the economy of Arabia Felix, which thus loses its monopoly on the supply of spices. This century thus marks the beginning of a slow economic recession. Upland tribes (the Himyarites) begin their progressive domination beginning in the 1st century AD.

So what is the actual path of this ancient canal? We know it fairly well, since the remains observed in the twentieth century substantially agree with the descriptions of Greek and Roman travelers. The canal issues from the eastern branch of the Nile, follows the southern edges of the wadi Tumilat valley, passes by Tell er-Retaba and Tell el – Maskhouta (Tjekou), rejoins lake Timsah, then flows directly south toward the bitter lakes and the Gulf of Suez. Let us listen to a continuation of the account of Herodotus: “It takes four days to travel along it, and its width is such that two triremes could be rowed in it side by side. It is fed by the waters of the Nile, and begins a little above Bubastis (Tell Basta) by Pithon (Tell el-Maskhouta), an Arabian town. It ends in the Red Sea. The excava­tion was begun in the part of the Egyptian plain which is nearest to Arabia. The mountains where the stone quarries are and which are close to Memphis, are near this plain. The canal was dug along the foot of these mountains from west to east, passing through a gorge (the wadi Tumilat valley?). It turns to the south out of the hill country toward the Arabian Gulf.”

The outlet of the canal into the sea, at the end of the Gulf of Suez, is obviously an important and critical site. Apparently land transfer of goods, or boat portage (a com­mon practice in Antiquity), is necessary up until the era of Ptolemy II. In 280 BC he built the terminal facilities. Diodore of Sicily describes them thus:

“(Ptolemy II) conceived a barrier adroitly placed at the most favorable location. One opened

it when one wanted to pass and immediately closed it, for it was well 38

designed for this purpose.”

When Strabo visited the delta region, this installation was clearly in use. He certain­ly did not travel as far as the Red Sea, but his account confirms that the flow in the canal is from the Nile toward the lakes:

“There is another canal that flows in to the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf near the city of Arsinoe (…). It flows through the lakes that are called bitter. Originally, these lakes were, without doubt, bitter, but when the aforementioned canal entered them, their waters, mixed with those of the river, changed nature and are today full of fish and inhabited by aquatic birds.”

Regarding the terminal facility of Ptolemy, Strabo’s account is somewhat vague: “the Ptolemite kings finished the excavation and closed the passage, in such a way that they could, at will, freely exit the canal into the sea outside and reenter into the canal.”[123] [124]

One can get lost among all the conjectures regarding this “barrier”. It was probably a single gate that could be opened when the tide equalized the water levels in the two water bodies, but surely was not a true lock[125]. One can only regret that Diodore and

Strabo did not leave us a more precise description of this “barrier”.

The canal will later be maintained and kept in operation by the Romans, who val­ued a direct pathway to the incense and myrrh of Arabia Felix. They named it Trajan s Canal after the work of this emperor, (who moved the point of entry toward Heliopolis, probably to improve the flow). The canal is also renovated and used by the Arabs, start­ing in 641 AD and up until its closure in 767 or 775 AD, to ship Egyptian wheat to Mecca and Medina. This closure was ordered by the Caliph Abu Jafr al-Mansur.[126] For twelve centuries, Necho’s project assures communication between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea.

Few technological achievements can lay claim to such long success.

Who dug the first “Suez Canal”?

Egypt had a long tradition of maritime commerce with countries on the shores of the Red Sea (in particular with the country of Punt, situated approximately east of Sudan and north of Eritrea). The port of Mersa Gawasis was founded in about 1900 BC under Amenemhat II (Middle Empire), somewhat below the 27th parallel (therefore a bit to the north of Thebes). Merchandise is carried by land to or from Thebes through arid val­leys, typified by the wadi Hammamat.

One can therefore readily appreciate the interest in a direct maritime link between the Nile and the Red Sea. Such a link was in fact realized though the valley of the wadi Tumilat with an east-west orientation. The remains of the canal were still visible in the 19th century, as described by Marice Linant de Bellefonds (1799-1883):

“More than forty years ago one could see, in the northern portions of today’s wadi Toumilat, the remains of an ancient canal that had rather small dimensions; it came from the west and flowed to the east along the desert and cultivated lands…. Near Tel-Retabee, this canal joined another much larger one, at a place called Ras el Wadi. this was the principal ancient canal..

It is there that the other canal from the northern portion joins the latter, which is much larger

30

and looks to be a very old and well built canal. u

All of the classic authors mention the existence of this very ancient and large-scale link. Certain of them (Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny) attribute the paternity of the canal to a pharaoh whom they call “Sesostris.”[115] [116] But archaeology clearly rules out the existence of such a communication link in the middle or new Empire. At best, one may consider the possibility that in the new Empire a small canal was constructed to transport stones from the Nile to the monuments constructed by Ramses II at the site known today as Tell

el Retaba. This is surely the small northern canal of the text cited.[117]

33

Modern studies[118] show that it is once again Herodotus who gives us the most pre­cise information. He situates the real beginning of the construction of the large canal during the reign of the Pharaoh Necho II, of the Saite Dynasty, who reigned in about 600 BC. This pharaoh, like most of his predecessors, pursued a policy of expansion toward the east, taking advantage of the fall of the Assyrian Empire. He builds a fleet of boats and embarks on an African expedition. Necho II founds the city of Tjekou, on the site of today’s Tell el Maskhouta, some fifteen kilometers to the west of the present Ismailia.[119] [120] Most of the canal was therefore built in that period (at least as far as Tjekou).

Two independent sources, that we will cite below, indicate the digging of the canal was not effectively ended until a century later, about 5009 BC, by order of the Persian sovereign Darius I.

Here is what Herodotus says:

“The son of Psammetichus was Necos, and he too became king of Egypt, and he was the first to attempt to dig a canal into the Red Sea; Darius the Persian was the second to dig it.”33

According to this author, some 120,000 workers were employed for the task by Necho. In 1866 Ferdinand de Lesseps, during his preliminary reconnaissance for con­struction of the Suez Canal, recognizes the traces of this ancient canal, well to the east of the vestiges found by Linant de Bellefonds.[121] At Kabret, 130 km from Suez on the isthmus of the same name, de Lesseps discovers a stela of pink granite engraved with the name of Darius, and with the following inscription in several languages:

“the king Darius declares: I am a Persian. From Persia, I took Egypt. I ordered this canal to be dug, from a river of the name of Nile, that flows in Egypt, to the sea that comes from Persia. Therefore, this canal was dug, as I had ordered, and boats go from Egypt, by this canal, toward Persia, as it pleases me.”[122]

The Persian’s strategic interest in this canal is obvious. But it is clear that Darius wrongly attributes the conquest of Egypt to himself, since this conquest was in fact accom­plished by his predecessor Cambyse. Therefore it is not surprising that he also exagger­ates his own role in the digging of the canal. Necho’s channel may have become clogged with silt or sand in the era of the sovereign Darius, who therefore would have re-excavat­ed it. It is also possible that the canal project undertaken by Necho was simply not com­pleted. In any case, three other stelas carrying the name of Darius will be discovered along the route of the canal, the most westerly being at Tell el-Mashkhuta (Figure 3.8).