How a tenacious French diplomat undertook the monumental construction of the Suez Canal

Suez, a historic canal

Part 3 will be available soon.

Suez, a historic canal

Part 3 will be available soon.

By Samuel Forey 

Subscribers only

Series'Suez, a historic canal' (2/6). Efforts to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea followed one after another from antiquity onward. But it was not until the arrival of Ferdinand de Lesseps – who was neither a scientist nor an engineer – that the project became a reality.

He is back. His brow is a bit misshapen, but his plump figure remains as genial as ever. Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894)has returned home, to Ismailia, in Egypt. More precisely, the statue of Lesseps, created by one of the most famous sculptors of the period, Emmanuel Frémiet (1824-1910). It is displayed at the magnificent Suez Canal Museum, located in the former building of the Suez Canal Company. Right next door stands the entrepreneur's former residence, converted into a luxury hotel in 2022.

In 1956, the statue was blown up but not destroyed.Its fragments were hidden in Port Fuad, the twin city of Port Said. It was rediscovered by chance in 1981 by a British naval lieutenant, alongside a bust of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) and a statue of King Fuad I(1868-1936). The statue was restored in 1989 by a French metalworker and six Egyptian laborers. However, Cairo did not want to relinquish the statue, considering it part of the country's heritage, nor to return it to its pedestal, as the Ferdinand de Lesseps and Suez Canal Remembrance Association, founded in 1978, would have liked. It was instead placed off to the side and could only be seen upon special request.

One night in 2020, the monument was quietly transported via the canal to Ismailia. Two members of the Egyptian House of Representatives demanded the return of the statue to "its" city, but to no avail. The museum opened in 2024, but President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has yet to inaugurate it. A statue moved clandestinely into a museum that has not been officially opened: The story embodies Egypt's complex relationship, torn between rejection and acceptance, with the Suez Canal.

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