The idea of a canal linking the Mediterranean to the Rea Sea dates back to ancient times.
It was Napoleon’s engineers who, around 1800 AD, revived the idea of a shorter route
to India via the Suez Canal. It was not until 1859 that Egyptian workers started working
on the construction of Canal in conditions, described by historians, as slave labor. The
project was completed around 1867. Although Britain had played no part in building
the Suez Canal in Egypt, it benefited greatly when it opened. The new 190-km-long
waterway shortened the route from Britain to India by around 9,700 km, therby extending
their powers of trading.