Suez Canal Architect: Iranian or French?

The Suez Canal, which Westerners like to credit to the design of French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps in the 1860s, connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

According to Ambassador Arjan, the Suez Canal today connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and economically plays a strategic role in the world's economy and transportation. A 192-kilometer-long waterway that Westerners like to think of as the result of the design of Ferdinand Dulles Posse, a French engineer in the 1860s; The approach that Europeans and Americans usually take to confiscate any significant material and spiritual work of human history and give it wings with the help of their media giants; While the reality is something else.

The idea of connecting two important seas, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, is not related to the last one or two centuries; Since thousands of years ago and in fact since the time of the pharaohs, connecting these two seas as an ambitious and important plan has been considered by rulers and conquerors. Abu Rihan Biruni, a great Iranian scientist and geographer, mentions Sasstratis as the pharaoh who ordered the construction of this aqueduct in his book "Determining the Limits of the Areas to Correct the Distances of the Houses". A pharaoh who is probably the same as "Nakhao" mentioned in Herodotus' history book; But the pharaohs could not complete this plan; Maybe they didn't have the necessary technology yet, and maybe they didn't have enough courage!

When, in 525 BC, Cambogia, the son of Cyrus I, invaded the Sinai desert and made Egypt a part of the great empire of Iran, a waterway to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea had not yet been built, and the adventures of the previous pharaohs had also been abandoned. Everyone was afraid that this action would cause the whole of Egypt to sink under water and leave no trace of it. With the death of Cambodia, Egypt, like other Iranian possessions, plunged into a massive rebellion; A rebellion that was finally suppressed by one of the sons of the Achaemenid dynasty; Dariush Achaemenshi.

When Darius pacified Egypt and set foot in this ancient land, the issue of creating an aqueduct was brought up to him; Maybe he saw the half-finished works of the pharaohs and wanted to finish them. Whatever it was, Achaemenid Darius made a firm decision to build an aqueduct. Western historians generally point to this issue; But most of them, like Strabo, believe that Darius did not ignore this idea and the construction of the canal was delayed until the reign of Batalse, who were the heirs of Alexander the Macedonian and came from the west. But there are indisputable documents that show that the first opener of the most strategic waterway of the ancient world was none other than Darius Achaemenashi.

Undoubted documents are the five inscriptions left by Darius the Achaemenid, which are still standing today in Egypt and show the strength and power of Iran and Iranians to the world. The waterway that was built by the Iranians and put into operation, followed a route other than the current Suez Canal.

This waterway started from the shores of the Red Sea and after traveling the shortest route to the west, it reached the raging Nile River. Five inscriptions of Darius are located on this path; The first inscription at the mouth of the river, the second inscription in the city of Shlouf, which is located in the middle of a field in this city today, the third inscription at the beginning of the bitter lake, the fourth inscription in the city of Serabium and the fifth inscription in Tel Meskhuta. Most parts of these inscriptions have been destroyed today; But this destruction is not such that one cannot understand their secret. In the inscription installed at the beginning of the aqueduct, we read: "Ahuramazda is a great god; He is the one who created the sky; He is the one who created the earth; He is the one who created man; He is the one who gave happiness to a person; He is the one who made Darius the ruler; He is the one who made Darius a great governor with good people and horses... I am Darius... the ruler of this great, vast and boundless land, the son of Vishtasep, an Achaemenid. Then he proudly adds: "Dariush says: I am Persian!" I came from Persia and took Egypt. I ordered the opening of this waterway from the river called Nile, which flows in Egypt, to the sea that goes to Persia. As I commanded, it was done; It was my wish that my fleet pass through this waterway and go to Pars.

The fate of the Iranian waterway in the land of the pharaohs

The aqueduct, which was built by the order of Darius Achaemenid, continued to exist for centuries; But the indifference of some rulers towards it and the internal conflicts and successive wars made the rulers neglect to guard it and it gradually lost its effectiveness with the many sediments that settled on its bottom. Later, parts of this waterway were used for the construction of the internal waterway of "Ismailieh" to show the world the art of Iranian engineers, its sustainability for thousands of years.