• Trajan’s Canal was a Roman canal that connected the Nile at Cairo to the Red Sea at Suez.
• It closely followed the course of the first canal started by the Pharaoh Sesostris who followed the Pelusiac arm of the Nile.

History of the Roman Suez Canal

• Unlike today’s Suez Canal which starts at the Mediterranean Sea, the Roman Canal started at the Nile at Fort Babylon, Cairo, passing via Wadi Tumilat, then through Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes, before reaching the Red Sea at Clysma (Suez).
• Starting in 112 CE, the Roman Canal was built by Trajan. This canal started in Cairo 37 miles (60 km) south of the Ptolemaic Canal.
• The date is confirmed by an Ostracon found in Thebes showing that in September 112 CE, a tax of 4 Drachmas was levied on the entire Egyptian population to build the ‘Potamos Babylonos’.
• A pair of massive parallel stone walls 20 ft (6m) wide and 131 ft (40m) apart running to the northeast, were found during excavations next to the tower between 1999 to 2005. At Portus near Rome, Trajan had already built a massive new harbour between 106-111 CE, which also had a 131 ft (40m) wide canal connecting it to the Tiber.
• In 300 CE, Fort Babylon on the Nile was rebuilt and considerably enlarged by Diocletian, after he had destroyed Coptos as the transfer hub to the Red Sea.
• The Pharaonic canal was the width of two Triremes according to Herodotus.
• Part of Trajan’s Canal is still visible today.

Fort Babylon

• A fortress was constructed at the junction of the Nile and Trajan’s Canal called Fort Babylon.
• Its name derives from an earlier fort constructed there by the Persian King Nebuchadnezzar who conquered Egypt in 568 BCE. He named it after Babylon, his own capital city, and called it Babylon in Egypt.
• The Nile flowed under the Fortress walls, and two circular towers guarded the entrance to the Canal, which led into a complex of docks and warehouses.
• Fort Babylon commanded the border between Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.
• All Tolls and Customs on the Nile and the canal were conducted from Fort Babylon.

Ancient Sources

• Aristotle
  • He wrote that the first canal was built by the Pharaoh Sesostris (Senusret).
• Herodotus
  • Writing in c.450 BCE, he stated that the Pharaoh Necho II (610-595 BCE) continued the work but failed to complete the canal.
  • wrote that the Persian King, Darius I (521-486 BCE), then completed the canal. He says over 100,000 men were employed to build it, and that it was wide enough for two [Trireme” show=”Triremes”] to pass each other, with the journey from the Nile to the Red Sea taking four days.
  • Stelae stand along the route of this canal, with inscriptions written in both Hieroglyphs and in Cuneiform describing Darius’ achievement.
• Strabo
  • He wrote that under Greek rule the canal was re-excavated by Ptolemy II (284-246 BCE), and became known as Ptolemy’s Canal. Strabo described the route of the Ptolemaic Canal in 25 BCE.
• Ptolemy
  • Writing around 150 CE, he names Babylon as the entrance to Trajan’s Canal, and that it was some 37 miles (60km) to the south of the previous entrance.

Preventing Sea Water entering the Canal

• Due to the Red Sea being higher than the Mediterranean, there was a risk of salt water flooding the Nile Delta and ruining the agriculture.
• So the Canal had to wait for the Annual Rise of the Nile before connecting to the Red Sea, and therefore the canal could only be used for four months between September and December. Water entered the Canal at Cairo and flowed towards the Bitter Lakes.
• The Nile reached its highest level during October, before starting to subside.
• To prevent salt water from the Red Sea entering the Canal, the earlier Ptolemaic canal appears to have constructed what was described as ‘a device’ at Suez, which acted as a lock gate. A similar device may have been used on the Roman canal, but is neither mentioned or described.

Cairo to Suez

• The Ptolemaic Canal followed the existing Pharaonic Canal, from The Pelusiac arm of the Nile along to Arsinoe, the main Sea Port on the Red Sea.
• However, the Roman canal started 37 miles (60km) further south, at Fort Babylon, joined the older canal at Belbeis, entered the Bitter Lakes, and arrived at Clysma, bypassing Arsinoe, on the Red Sea.
• Strabo described the route of the Ptolemaic Canal in 25 BCE.

Red Sea Trade

• The Canal is not mentioned by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea written in the first century CE.
• The route then used being the Nile to Coptos and then overland by camel caravan to Myos Hormos. Neither does Pliny the Elder mention the Canal in his description of the Red Sea trade route to India.
• However, after 300 CE Myos Hormos and Berenice cease to be active as Ports, and the trade with India seems to have passed through Trajan’s Canal and Fort Babylon.

Trajan’s Preparations for the War against Parthia (106-117 CE)

• Trajan built the Canal during his preparations for conquering the East.
• In 106 CE Trajan annexed the Nabatean Kingdom after the Client King died, placing Roman Legions in Arabia for the first time.
• In 111 CE Trajan built the Via Traiana connecting the Red Sea to Damascus. This Military Road gave the Syrian Legions access to the Red Sea.
• In 112 CE Trajan ordered the construction of the Red Sea Canal to start at Fort Babylon and end at Clysma (Suez). Eutropius mentions that Trajan established a Fleet in the Red Sea.
• Between 113-117 CE, Trajan invaded the Parthian Empire, capturing Ctesiphon and reaching Charax Spasinu on the Persian Gulf.

After the Arab Conquest (643 CE)

• The Roman Canal had silted up by the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt in 643 CE.
• Ibn Duqmaq recounts that the canal was reopened two years after the Conquest, and took six months to clear away all the sand. The account shows that it was a re-excavation of the existing Roman Canal.
• It was renamed the ‘Khalig Amir al-Mu’minin’ meaning the ‘Canal of the Commander of the Faithful’. The Arabs used the canal to export Egyptian grain to Arabia.

Route of Trajan’s canal