The photo is of one of the Control Stations.
Ferdinand de Lesseps led the French company contracted to build the Suez Canal in 1859. The Egyptian and French Governments jointly owned the canal and the first ship to pass through the canal did so in February 1867. Of the 1.5million Egyptians who worked on the canal 125,00 died, mainly from cholera.
The Egyptian ruler, Ismail, spent huge amounts of money in celebration, building a palace in Cairo and inviting royalty from all round the world to celebrate the opening of the canal. This spending coincided with a plunge in the price of Egyptian cotton and because of the debt already incurred Ismail was forced to sell the canal to Great Britain.
In July 1956 Egypt seized the canal (The Suez Crisis) that caused the Britain, France and Israel to invade in the week long Suez War. Led by the USA, who didn’t want such an important route held by countries that they could not control, the United Nations declared the canal Egyptian property.
The canal was closed for 8 years in 1967 after Egypt lost a disastrous war with Israel who took control and occupied the Sinai Peninsular, which included the east bank of the canal. The canal did not reopen until 1975 after tensions cooled and Egypt signed a Peace Treaty with Israel in 1979. Today the Suez Canal is open to every nation although the Israeli’s are building a freight railway line from Eilat north as a precaution to any change in attitude of the current Muslim Brotherhood dominated Government of Egypt who I have already said are strong supporters of the Palestinians.
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