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.
