8
HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.
Book II.
Among the other benefits conferred by Sesostris on theof cutting many canals and deep dikes, at right anglesMemphis to the sea, for the quick con-veyance of corn, other provisions, andmerchandise {Dio. Sic. lib. i. cap. 4.), thebarter of which would supply fresh luxu-ries to the inhabitants of this agriculturalcountry ; and thus the advantages arisingfrom this external commerce would sti-mulate an ardour for further internal com-munication ; and unquestionably the bestmeans that could be employed by an in-telligent governor to procure competenceto every class of citizens, would be the fa-cilitating the transport of provisions ; andthe most simple and efficacious means ofattaining this desirable end, is the unitingthe different provinces of an empire, byimproving the navigation of rivers, andforming artificial ones, where nature seemsto have denied that assistance. Doubt-less, the extensive commerce which musthave been carried on under the sway ofthis prince, gave rise to many of the canalswith which Egypt was afterwards inter-sected ; for we find from Diodorus Siculus (lib. i cap. 4.), that he sent forth a navyof four hundred sail into the Red Sea ,and was the first Egyptian that built longships, which, it is true, were principallydesigned for the purposes of conquest;but the general character of Sesostris givesthe idea that the internal grandeur of hiscountry and the improvement of his peo-ple were never neglected. At a laterperiod, about 610 years before Christ,
Necos, son of P.sammeticus, commencedthe difficult undertaking of uniting thissea with the Mediterranean by means ofa canal, which was opened about twelvemiles to the north-east of the moderntown of Belbays, called by the Romans,
Buhastis Agria ; and after a course, nearlyeast, of thirty-three miles, it turned tothe south-south-east, and continued sixty-three miles further, to the extremity ofthe Arabian Gulf . This canal was wideenough for two triremes to pass abreast;and it is stated that 120,000 Egyptiansperished in the prosecution of the work.
Several monarchs continued it; but, ac-cording to Pliny (lib. vi. cap. 29.), it pro-ceeded no further than the lakes called theBitter Springs, when it was abandoned,from fear of the greater height of the watersof the Red Sea . This author states itsbreadth at one hundred feet, and its depthforty, and the distance from the westernentrance to the Bitter Lakes thirty-sevenmiles. Strabo asserts that ships of thelargest size could navigate it. After thetime of the Ptolemies it was neglected,until the caliph Omar, in 644 a.d., re-opened it, and cut another canal, calledthat of the Prince of the Faithful, southof Cairo : it was used for more than 120 years untildestroyed.
PYRAMIDS Of GEEJ
the commerce of
we find thatfar as from
i 1
IfcH.
Alexandria was