Legend of the Sesostris Canal

There is no historical evidence for the existence of the ancient Sesostris Canal that was once said to link the Nile to the Red Sea, writes Al-Sayed Mahfouz

During media discussions of the new Suez Canal project that is to be built in parallel to the existing canal in the east of the country, many references were made to an ancient canal that the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Sesostris is said to have dug to link the Nile with the Red Sea. Many take the existence of this canal as a historical fact, when its existence has never been proved, however.

According to legend, Sesostris III, the fifth pharoah of the twelfth dynasty, connected the now extinct Pelusiac Branch of the Nile with the Red Sea by a canal. This story is mentioned in many books on the period, and a section of the new Suez Museum has even been set aside to this alleged canal. But the story is false.

The tendency to offer legend as fact in some Egyptian museums is deplorable and even laughable. Another example of this tendency is the so-called mummy of Hatshepsut, currently in display in the Egyptian Museum, which has not been irrefutably linked to the ancient queen.
Those who wish to learn more about the Sesostris Canal can refer to an excellent Arabic-language essay written by the late professor Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Halim, “The Nile-Red Sea Canal called the Sesostris Canal,” in which he examines, and refutes, the story.

The legend started with the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who attributed the digging of the canal to the pharaoh Nkhaw in 610 BCE, saying that it was left incomplete. But archaeological work conducted near Suez and the Bitter Lakes have produced no traces of habitation connected with the Middle Kingdom, during which Sesostris reportedly dug the said canal.

New discoveries at Berenice by Polish archaeologists

Archaeologists studied 2 thousand years old port infrastructure and a large animal cemetery in Berenice on the Red Sea in Egypt.

"This time during excavations we got lucky. Undoubtedly, this year's most interesting find is a frame - wooden part of a ship hull from the early Roman period" - told PAP Iwona Zych from the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, who leads the research project in cooperation with Prof. Steven E. Sidebotham of the University of Delaware in the United States.

This is the first fully preserved and documented frame from the hull of the ship from this period in Egypt. The find and the place of its discovery leads researchers to believe that the ship was dismantled and its parts stored in the warehouse in the port bay. Archaeologists will examine the object. Detailed measurements will allow for an approximate reconstruction of the size of the ship.

"This will be the first time that we know the actual size and construction of a Red Sea vessel, because no ancient vessels, or even wrecks have survived to this day" - said Zych.

North-east of the port, archaeologists discovered a large cemetery of small animals. Only this year they studied 60 burials, mostly of cats, but also a small number of dogs, two small vervets and a baboon. Most of the animals were buried either inside damaged clay vessels or covered with shards of clay pots and amphorae. An interesting fact is that one of the vervets had a metal collar.

Scientists are not sure why animals had been buried in this place. Archaeozoologist of the mission, Dr. Marta Osypińska, believes that such an accumulation of burials may be a result of a plague brought to the port from a remote destination. Another possibility is exploitation of young animals in magical rituals, during which the oracle was consulted before a long sea journey. Pet cemeteries are also known from the areas of the Roman Empire, and this beloved animals also can not be ruled out in the case of Berenice. Further research may help solve this puzzle.