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The Canal of the Pharaohs, also called the Ancient Suez Canal or Necho's Canal, is the forerunner of the Suez Canal, constructed in ancient times. It followed a different course than its modern counterpart, by linking the Nile to the Red Sea via the Wadi Tumilat. Work began under the Pharaohs. According to Suez Inscriptions and Herodotus, the first opening of the canal was under Persian king Darius the Great, but later ancient authors like Aristotle, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder claim that he failed to complete the work.〔Schörner 2000, p. 31, 40, fn. 33〕 Another possibility is that it was finished in the Ptolemaic period under Ptolemy II, when Greek engineers solved the problem of overcoming the difference in height through canal locks.〔Moore 1950, pp. 99–101〕〔Froriep 1986, p. 46〕〔Schörner 2000, pp. 33–35〕 ==Egyptian and Persian works== Probably first cut or at least begun by Necho II, in the late 6th century BC, Darius the Great either re-dug or completed it. Exactly when it was finally completed is not known as the classical sources disagree. At least as far back as Aristotle there have been suggestions that perhaps as early as the 12th Dynasty, Pharaoh Senusret III (1878 BC–1839 BC), also called Sesostris, may have started a canal joining the River Nile with the Red Sea. In his ''Meteorology,'' Aristotle wrote: One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it.〔(Meteorology (1.15) )〕 Strabo also wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote: 165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.〔The Elder Pliny and John Healey ''Natural History'' (6.33.165) Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (5 Feb 2004) ISBN 978-0-14-044413-1 p.70 ()〕 Although Herodotus (2.158) tells us Darius I continued work on the canal,〔Schörner 2000, p. 40, fn. 33〕 Aristotle (Aristot. met. I 14 P 352b.), Strabo (Strab. XVII 1, 25 C 804. 805.), and Pliny the Elder (Plin. n. h. VI 165f.) all say that he failed to complete it,〔 while Diodorus Siculus does not mention a completion of the canal by Necho II.〔Schörner 2000, p. 31〕 Pliny the Elder also says that Ptolemy II, who took up the work again, also stopped because of the differences of water level.〔Redmount, Carol A. "The Wadi Tumilat and the "Canal of the Pharaohs"" ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'', Vol. 54, No. 2 (Apr., 1995), pp. 127-135〕 Diodorus, however, reports that it was completed by Ptolemy II after being fitted with a lock.〔Schörner 2000, p. 34〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Canal of the Pharaohs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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