Description
Antique print dated 1895.
The page is over 115 years old and in good condition.
In order to enhance and protect the page we have set it
within a bespoke frame and mount.
Frame size 400mm x 370mm. available also in a
gold frame, your choice. RtW.146.
Entitled – Kantarah. View of the Suez Canal.
Below the picture an inscription reads:
Kantarah. – At this point the Suez Canal intersects the caravan track between Egypt and Syria, and is crossed by a floating bridge.
Both Napoleon and Mohammed Ali nursed the idea of cutting a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, but it was given to the late Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps, “le grand Francais,” as he will always be known, to bring the project into successful action; he first considered the matter whilst in quarantine at Alexandria in 1831.
After incessant labour with Governments, Commissions, and perverse functionaries, a company was started in 1858, in which 21,000 Frenchmen, headed by Prince Jerome, took shares.
In two months the whole capital of eight millions sterling was subscribed in 500fr. shares, and the work was commenced in 1859.
Additional capital was required at various times, until upwards of seventeen millions had been expended.
In 1875 this country bought Egypt’s 176,602 shares for four millions of pounds; and it is instructive to note that these shares now yield our Government £600,000 a year, and are worth four times their original purchase money, in spite of Lord Palmerston’s jokes and English opposition at the inception of the great work.
The Suez Canal was opened with great festivities on November 17th, 1869.
As a cogent reason for its existence it may be mentioned that while the distance from London to Bombay by the Cape route is 10,719 miles, the journey by way of Suez is but 6,274 miles.
The Suez Canal is about 100 miles long, and has a fairly uniform depth of 26ft.
Thanks to the aid of electric light, vessels can now pass through in 18 hours.
As one may judge from our photograph, the passage is not lively; there is no vegetation, and hardly any animal life of any kind.
The traveller will, however, see a number of floating dredging machines, each of which cost from £5,000 to £6,000.
If you buy an item and then see it relisted this is because we occasionally have more than one available, each page is
original and not a photocopy.
Thank you for looking, please visit our shop.
