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最近苏伊士运河上的的搁浅货轮闹得可是沸沸扬扬，可单单一艘货轮搁浅是不足以让媒体如此重视的，那么究竟是为何世界各国的媒体都对此事从始至终保持如此高的关注度呢？这就不得不提到苏伊士运河了，要说起这条运河它可不简单，它诞生于鲜血与硝烟之中，带着十分沉重的历史意义与无可替代的地理价值，甚至被人们赋予了一个惊人的称号——帝国咽喉。

World trade is a big business.

全球贸易的流通是非常重要的。

I mean yeah, it pretty much is the economy after all and thus situating yourself near a chokepoint between two major bodies of water (à la Singapore) can be a godsend to an area's local economy.

我的意思是说，主要是经济上的贡献。运河的修建对于当地经济的发展是非常有利的。

However if I were to ask most people which is the most important waterway in the world, sure some would answer the Straights of Malacca or the South China Sea, but for most it would be a toss-up between the Panama and Suez Canals.

但是，如果我问你世界上哪条运河最重要？肯定有人会说是马六甲海峡或是中国南海，但大多数人可能会在巴拿马运河和苏伊士运河之间做出一个选择。

So in this video, we will go to be focus on the history and construction of the Suez Canal, the bigger and also much older of the two.

所以在这段视频中，我们将重点介绍苏伊士运河的历史和修建过程，它是这两条运河中全程更长，历史更悠久的一条运河。

Like, much older.

就像足够老了的人一样。

The Suez Canal, as it currently exists, is a 193-kilometer artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said to the Red Sea at Port Tewfik.

至今尚存的苏伊士运河，是一条总长为193公里的人工水道，连接着塞得港的地中海和特菲克港的红海。

This waterway connects the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in a way that doesn't require a ship heading between Europe and Asia either go around Africa or. . . wait for the ice to melt in the Arctic.

这条海上通道连接大西洋和印度洋，船只不需要经过欧洲和亚洲，也不需要绕过非洲或……等到北极冰雪融化再航行。

The canal also, unlike the Panama Canal, has no locks at all, making it much easier for some of the world's ships to slip right through and for the canal to be expanded, should the Egyptian government prioritize such a project.

苏伊士运河也不像巴拿马运河那样，因为它根本没有限行禁令，这使得大量船只能够很容易地直接通过，因此埃及政府也曾考虑过运河的扩建工程。

This makes this little waterway between Africa and Asia one of the most revolutionary projects in the transportation world.

这也使得连接非洲和亚洲的这条小型海上通道成为交通运输界最具标志性的建筑之一。

With this canal, a ship traveling from (for example) Port Sudan to Antalya, Turkey would only have to travel about 2,000 kilometers, without the canal going to Africa, this distance would be nearly 23,000 kilometers, meaning that by Port Sudan it would be a shorter distance by boat to Samoa.

有了这条运河，一艘从苏丹港到安塔利亚或土耳其的船，只需行驶约2000公里，如果没有这条通往非洲的运河，这段距离将接近2万3千公里，这表明从苏丹坐船到萨摩亚的距离变短了。

So this is pretty damn important!

所以，这条运河是很重要的！

The Suez Canal was first opened in 1869, or at least the Suez Canal as we know it today.

苏伊士运河于1869年首次通航，或者至少是我们今天所知道的苏伊士运河。

You see, as tough as it may have been to build a canal at this scale, this canal was far from the first of its kind of area, and even less so the first attempt.

你知道吗，修建一条如此规模的运河是很困难的，但这条运河远非第一次，更不止第一次尝试。

In fact a canal of this sort was first attempted by Egypt in the 19th century…

事实上，这种类型的运河最早是19世纪的埃及首次尝试修建的。

BC, under the rule of Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senusret II— though do keep in mind these records aren't in the best condition, with some theorizing that it might have been under the rule of Ramesses II, over 600 years later, which is a pretty big range.

公元前，在中王国法老塞努斯雷特二世的统治下——但这些记录可能不太准确，因此也有人推测可能是在拉美西斯二世的统治下，大约600年前，这个年份跨度有点大。

Regardless, this canal was not located in the Sinai Peninsula, as is the current one, rather it was a canal between the Red Sea (which at this time extended much further north) and the Nile River;logically seeing as this was the heart of Egyptian civilization.

不管怎样，当时这条运河不像现在的运河这样位于西奈半岛，更确切地说，它是红海（当时它向北延伸得更远）和尼罗河之间的一条运河；可以看出，它是埃及文明的核心。

Later canals in this area, likely even building upon the original, were constructed over 1,000 years later, with the only functional one of these being built under Darius I of Persia.

后来，这个地区的运河，可能都是在原有基础上修建的，大约在1000多年后修建的，其中唯一实用的一条运河是在波斯大流士一世统治下建造的。

A canal was reportedly later opened by the time of the Islamic Caliphates between the Red Sea and Old Cairo (basically the pre-release version of Cairo itself), though this canal was reportedly closed under orders from Caliph Al-Mansur in the 8th century AD.

据报道，在伊斯兰哈里发统治时期，红海和旧开罗（现在开罗的发源地）之间的一条运河通航了，但报道称，公元8世纪，哈里发曼苏尔下令关闭这条运河。

That combined with the Red Sea gradually receding away from what are now the Bitter Lakes caused the canal to fade into disuse.

加上红海逐渐远离死海，导致这条运河渐渐废弃了。

Trade in the area was generally served more by overland caravan until after the 15th century, when western European nations decided to start going west to try to get to East Asia, and also after the Portuguese figured out how to encircle Africa in 1488.

该地区的贸易通常是由陆路商队完成的，直到15世纪，这时西欧国家决定开始向西开展贸易，并试图到达东亚。同期，葡萄牙人在1488年试图将非洲变成殖民地。

Venice was a natural loser in this arrangement, and so decided to strike a deal with the Mamluk Sultanate to build a new canal through the Sinai Peninsula, but this idea had to be shelved because of that whole Ottoman-conquest-of-Egypt-in-1517 thing.

在这一时局下，威尼斯输了，于是决定与马穆鲁克苏丹国达成协议，在西奈半岛修建一条新运河，但是在1517年，奥斯曼帝国统治了埃及。因此，这个协议被搁置了。

That didn't mean the Ottomans weren't interested in a Suez Canal either though, in fact it would have been a godsend to connect the imperial core in and around Constantinople to the trade and pilgrimage routes of the Indian Ocean (I mean, the Ottoman Empire did also hold Mecca).

这并不意味着奥斯曼人对苏伊士运河不感兴趣，事实上，奥斯曼是一个信奉神学的国家，将君士坦丁堡及其周围的帝国核心与印度洋的贸易和朝圣路线联系起来（我是说，奥斯曼帝国也有麦加信仰）。

However this project was eventually deemed too expensive and also shelved.

然而，修建运河这个项目最终因为价格太昂贵，被终止了。

Napoleon then came to Egypt at the end of the 18th century and also thought building a canal here would be a good idea and so decided to survey the land.

18世纪末，拿破仑来到埃及，他也认为在这里修建运河是个好主意，于是决定征用这块土地。

However their calculations told them that the Red Sea was about 10 meters higher than the Mediterranean, and so they also gave up.

然而，通过计算发现红海比地中海高10米左右，所以他们也放弃了。

In the following decades, with Egypt now under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty (again, no relation), a railway was setup between Alexandria and Suez… but this wasn't good enough for global trade, so guess what they thought of?

在接下来的几十年里，埃及正处于穆罕默德阿里统治时期（再次声明，可能没有关系），亚历山大和苏伊士之间已经建立了一条铁路，但这对全球贸易来说还不够有利，所以你猜测一下当时的人在想些什么？

That's right, another canal!

没错，修建一条运河！

After it was found that Napoleon's surveys got the height of the seas wrong, the canal's biggest sponsor was Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps.

拿破仑经过调查发现海洋高度量错了，运河的最大赞助商是法国人费迪南德·德莱塞普斯。

Initially Muhammad Ali Pasha was not interested, but de Lesseps became a long-time friend with his son Mohammed Sa'id Pasha, who granted a special zone for the canal to be built, with the Suez Canal Company established in 1858, and the land given to said company on a 99-year lease with 75% of the profits going to them,15% to Egypt, and 10% to their investors.

一开始，穆罕默德·阿里·帕沙对此不感兴趣，但是德莱塞普斯和他的儿子穆罕默德·萨伊德·帕沙是很好的朋友，他为运河的修建设立了一个特别区域，苏伊士运河公司于1858年成立，并拿到这块土地99年的使用权，期间75%的利润归苏伊士运河公司所有，15%归埃及政府所有，10%归投资者所有。

Construction broke ground in 1859 and would take ten years and a grand total of over 1.5 million workers throughout the decade (though usually 30,000 at a time), with thousands of worker deaths due to various outbreaks, mainly cholera.

但运河的施工曾于1859年中断过，最终花了10年时间修建完成，总用工人数超过150万人（每次施工通常需要3万人参与），期间由于霍乱等各种意外的发生，造成数千名工人死亡。

After the two teams met in the middle at the Bitter Lakes, a huge opening ceremony was held on the canal on 15th November 1869, with banquets on Ismail Pasha's yacht and blessings with both Christian and Islamic ceremonies (including a temporary church and mosque for the event).

运河两头终于在苦海连接起来了，1869年11月15日，苏伊士运河举行了一场盛大的通航仪式。伊斯梅尔·帕沙在游艇上举办宴会，并用基督教和伊斯兰仪式（包括临时教堂和清真寺）祈福。

The area, seeing virtually immediate success, was declared in the Constantinople Convention to be an international zone under British protection.

该地区，几乎同一时间声名大噪，君士坦丁堡公约正式签订，君士坦丁堡成为受英国保护的国际区。

This would play a pivotal part in the World Wars, and would also contribute to conflict between Britain and Egypt in the Suez Crisis.

这将在世界大战中起到关键作用，而且也是造成苏伊士危机中英埃冲突的直接原因。