Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is a canal in Egypt. It connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, and on a larger scale the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian Ocean. For shipping traffic from Europe to the Far East, it cuts thousands of miles off the journey. If it didn't exist, ships would have to go around the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa.

The Suez Canal was constructed in the late 19th century. It has played a strategic role ever since, factoring in World War I were the Turks threatened British control of it from their bases in Palestine, to World War II, where the Germans and Italians threatened it from Libya. In the 1950s Israel, Great Britain, and France invaded Egypt to regain control of it.