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διώρυξε. Necho's naval projects were part of his scheme of resistance to the new power of Babylon, which had risen on the ruins of Assyria. The cities of Phoenicia were always hostile to the great Eastern empires, and it was obvious that the naval force of Egypt would be doubly effective in supporting them, if the Red Sea fleet could join that of the Mediterranean. We may compare the increase in the power of Germany due to the Kiel canal.

The Nile canal was first made by Sethos I (nineteenth dynasty, 1326-1300 B. C.; cf. Petrie, iii. 13); it was represented in one of the scenes in the hall at Karnak. It had, however, silted up by Necho's time. The work of Darius is confirmed by inscriptions (Hogarth, A. and A. p. 184) found between the Bitter Lakes and the Red Sea; Darius says, ‘I ordered to dig this canal from the Nile which flows in Egypt to the sea which begins with Persia. This canal was dug’ (Weissbach and Bang, 1893; Die Alt-Pers. Keilinsch. p. 39; Meyer, iii. 60 adopts this view); the inscription was formerly translated in the opposite sense, to mean that Darius gave up his work (so Prá[sbreve]ek, ii. 111). The canal was again rendered navigable under the Ptolemies, and with some variation of direction by Trajan (but this is uncertain); it finally was closed in the eighth century A. D. The remains of the canal at Belbês show that it was some 50 yards wide and 16 to 17 feet deep; cf. vii. 24 (the Mount Athos canal) for the breadth—‘two triremes abreast’.

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