ABSTRACT
The canal, which is 105 miles (169 km) long, cuts across the Suez Isthmus to connect the Mediterranean and the Red Sea; it provides the shortest route between Europe and the Indian Ocean, the Far East and the western Pacific. The canal itself does not follow the shortest route but utilizes several lakes, especially the Great and Little Bitter Lakes, and is the longest canal in the world with no locks. The Suez Isthmus and the Sinai Peninsula form the sole land link between Africa and Asia and, as such, have been a strategic focal point since earliest times.
