The fresh water canal drew drinking water from the Nile river for the workers building the Suez Canal. Ismailia hosted offices and workers. There was an Arab village, a railway station and some large buildings including the Khedive’s palace and the chalet of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French diplomant responsible for construction of the Suez Canal.

Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds, also known as Linant Bey, was a French painter, traveller and explorer. In Egypt, he collaborated with Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha and Said Pasha and was appointed as director of public works. He was one of the experts the governors hired in order to acquire technical know-how.

This marble sculpture was commissioned by Pasquale Revoltella to celebrate the Suez Canal. He was a businessman from Trieste (the main commercial port of the Austro-Hungarian empire up to the end of World War I) and vice president of the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez.

This painting was commissioned by Pasquale Revoltella to celebrate the innovation of the Suez Canal. He was a businessman from Trieste (the main commercial port of the Austro-Hungarian empire up to the end of the World War I) and vice-president of the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez.

One of the medals issued to celebrate the construction of the Suez Canal. The allegorical figures emphasise its importance as a waterway and as a trade route.

This plan of the Suez Canal was published in Algiers in 1865. It shows in detail the work in progress, the geographical area surrounding the canal and a portion of the Mediterranean coastline. The Suez Canal would bring positive economic effects to North African trade.

Brass token issued by Borel Lavalley et Companie before the inauguration of the Suez Canal. Its simple iconography is a reminder of the expectations raised by the completion of the building of the canal.

Seafaring and economy were deeply interconnected. Having lost Venice in 1866, Trieste (today an Italian city) became the main port through which Austria conducted commercial relations with Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. The Suez Canal was a further commercial outlet for the Austrian market.

The inauguration of the Suez Canal represented a strategic innovation also for Austria. This medal was struck by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I to celebrate the opening of the canal. He was invited by the Khedive Ismail to the inauguration.

All the stages of building the Suez Canal were documented by photographs.

The medal commemorates Ferdinand de Lesseps, the diplomat responsible for the Suez Canal’s construction, and the participation of the Empress Eugénie. Its iconography recalls similar objects issued for the inauguration. The pyramids are connected to symbols of modernity. The European iconography reveals a fashion of the time by focusing on ancient Egyptian history.

The Khedive Ismail had invested a huge sum to promote the building of the Suez Canal as an attempt to reform and modernise Egypt and to make it economically and strategically stronger against the European powers.

Traffic on the Suez Canal and its revenues influenced the European economy. The Commodities Exchange of Trieste was kept up to date with lists of revenues such as this one. The port of Trieste (a “gate to the Orient”) and the Commodities Exchange had been developed by the Habsburgs.

Brăila, on the Danube near the Black Sea, passed from Ottoman sovereignty to the principality of Wallachia after the Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne) was signed with Russia (1829). Wallachia and Moldavia were granted by the Ottoman Empire freedom of trade and navigation on the Danube, and Brăila became a free port.

This painting is included in the personal album of the Empress Eugénie of France. The inauguration of the Suez Canal was a great event, being the fulfilment of an ancient idea and for the strategic and economic aims that attracted all countries and the great powers in particular. Paintings were therefore made to immortalise the event.

The idea of the Corinth Canal was revived after Greece gained independence in 1830 but was soon abandoned for economic reasons. It was formally inaugurated on 23 April 1882. The canal was designed by the Hungarian engineer Béla Gerster with the assistance of the French Vincent Dauzats, a chief engineer of the Suez Canal.

The idea of the Corinth Canal was revived after Greece gained independence in 1830 but soon abandoned for economic reasons. It was formally inaugurated on 23 April 1882. The canal was designed by the Hungarian engineer Béla Gerster with the assistance of the French Vincent Dauzats, a chief engineer of the Suez Canal.

Constanţa was the junction between the Danubian waterway, its ports and the Black Sea. It was a strategic port at a time of clashes between the Ottoman Empire and Russia for control of the area and of the Straits of Bosphorus and Dardanelles, and throughout the 19th century. Hence its empowerment under the Ottoman and Romanian sovereignty.

The brig Mariţa was built in the port of Giurgiu in 1834 (during the Russian protectorate after the Russo-Turkish war), when Wallachia and Moldavia had been granted by the Ottoman Empire freedom of trade and navigation on the Danube.

The bridge was located in Cernavodă, a Danubian port city on the route of the Orient Express to Istanbul. The passengers could get to the port of Constanţa by train and thence to Istanbul by ship. The bridge shortened the journey to Istanbul by crossing the waterway of the Danube.