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What type of equipment was used to build the Suez Canal?

April 26, 2017build canal equipment suez type Used

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What type of equipment was used to build the Suez Canal?

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The Suez Canal is a sea level canal (no locks). It was dug between 1859 and 1869 using forced labor. Early steam powered shovels existed but seem not to have been used, since the then viceroy of Egypt was able to supply the French construction company with as many conscripts as it needed. The main tools used thus would likely have been hand picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. There is an engraving from 1869 which shows construction steam trains of gondolas, presumably for the removal of material from the site, but there is no other equipment visible.