Franz had not been the first to propose connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. According to an inscription dating to 2000 BC, large-scale excavation work had already been carried out at the time.
The canal was completed during the reign of Senusret III, pharaoh of Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty (1884–1849 BC). It existed for at least several centuries before being abandoned around 1300 BC.
Around 600 BC, the Egyptian pharaoh of the time wanted to rebuild the canal. He conscripted 120,000 laborers in one fell swoop—in effect, mobilizing the entire nation.
But with Persia on the rise and the pressure of war mounting, the project was abandoned.
Persia later invaded Egypt. In 512 BC, Darius I finally reopened the canal to secure his rule and made many alterations to it. It became known as the "Persian Canal."
Although Darius I's canal lowered costs, it could only be navigated when the Nile flooded.
His descendants paid it little attention, and before long the so-called "Persian Canal" vanished from historical memory. At one point, even the descendants of the Persians believed it had been somewhere in Mesopotamia.
Around 250 BC, the Greeks widened the canal between the Great Bitter Lake and the Little Bitter Lake, allowing it to be navigated year-round and creating the forerunner of the modern Suez Canal.
In the years that followed, the Romans and Arabs successively ruled Egypt, and the canal was repeatedly rebuilt and rerouted.
At last, the caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate ordered the great canal blocked to suppress an uprising among the people of Medina. This time, it remained closed for a full thousand years.
On March 15, 1672, Leibniz, the German mathematician known as "the Aristotle of the seventeenth century," presented his grand canal plan to the Sun King, Louis XIV, at the Palace