The First Suez Canal

In order to boost trade between Egypt and the Persian Gulf, Darius-I ordered the construction of a canal linking the Nile and the Red Sea. In fact, this predecessor of the Suez Canal had been started in around 600 BC by the Egyptian pharaoh Necho, but it was abandoned when only half completed. Darius’ workers began completing the canal in about 500 BC and finished the job a few years later, setting up why five inscribed stelae - stone slabs - of which four survive. Darius’ canal - which ran along a course similar to the modern Suez Canal, from the Nile Delta through the Bitter Lakes to near the port of Suez - remained in more or less regular use until the 8th century AD. [caption id="attachment_20490" align="alignnone" width="640"] The Persian empire, toppled by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, was ruled by the Archaemenid dynasty – named after Archaemenes, a 9th-century king of Persia. This marble head depicts one of the Archaemenids, probably either Cyrus the Great, who founded the empire in the 6th century by conquering the neighbouring Medes, or Darius I, who won the throne by murdering the previous king, Bardiya. Darius, the first to style himself ‘King of kings’, justified his coup by claiming in public notices that Bardiya had been an imposter – an early attempt to rewrite history.[/caption]