Canal

History

The transport capacity of pack animals and carts is limited. A mule can carry a This is the first time that such planned civil project had taken place in the ancient world. In Egypt, canals date back at least to the time of Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2283 BC), who ordered a canal built to bypass the cataract on the Nile near Aswan. In ancient China, large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Spring and Autumn period (8th–5th centuries BC), the longest one of that period being the Hong Gou (Canal of the Wild Geese), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei. The Caoyun System of canals was essential for imperial taxation, which was largely assessed in kind and involved enormous shipments of rice and other grains. By far the longest canal was the Grand Canal of China, still the longest canal in the world today and the oldest extant one. It is long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang Guang between Zhuodu (Beijing) and Yuhang (Hangzhou). The project began in 605 and was completed in 609, although much of the work combined older canals, the oldest section of the canal existing since at least 486 BC. Even in its narrowest urban sections it is rarely less than wide. In the 5th century BC, Achaemenid king Xerxes I of Persia ordered the construction of the Xerxes Canal through the base of Mount Athos peninsula, Chalkidiki, northern Greece. It was constructed as part of his preparations for the Second Persian invasion of Greece, a part of the Greco-Persian Wars. It is one of the few monuments left by the Persian Empire in Europe. Greek engineers were also among the first to use canal locks, by which they regulated the water flow in the Ancient Suez Canal…