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Canal
A canal
is an artificial or man-made river channel. Canals are built for several
reasons:
- To join rivers
and lakes so that barges (large flat boats) can carry goods and cargo
using the rivers. Most canals were built 200 years ago, before surfaced
roads and railways had been invented. Canals were the easiest and
cheapest way to transport heavy cargoes.
- To take water
from a river to irrigate crops. Many farming communities still do
this, for example on the banks of the Nile.
- To join a river
to the sea so that cargo boats and ocean boats can use the canal to
transport goods and cargo.
Famous
Canals
The two
most famous canals are the Suez Canal in Egypt and the Panama Canal
in Panama, Central America.
The
Suez Canal
The Suez
Canal took 10 years to build. Work started in 1859 and finished in 1869.
The Suez Canal is 173 kilometres long, 200 metres wide and 20 metres
deep. It takes 15 hours to travel down the canal. The Suez Canal links
the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said to the Red Sea.
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The
Suez Canal at sunset
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A
boat travelling up the Suez Canal
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The
Panama Canal
The Panama
Canal took 10 years to build. Work started in 1904 and finished in 1914,
at a cost of $387 million. It was built so that cargo ships travelling
from places like London to San Francisco in the USA would not have to
make a long, dangerous journey round Cape Horn. The length of the canal
is approximately 58 miles and it is about 1000 feet wide. The depth
of the canal is 41 feet. It takes 7 - 8 hours for a ship to travel through
the Panama Canal.
Bridge over
the Panama Canal
The
Rhine-Danube Canal
The Rhine-Danube
canal connects the rivers Rhine and Danube by way of the Main river.
The whole canal is 677 kilometres in length. This canal means that cargo
ships and barges can cross Europe from the North Sea to the Black Sea.
The canal was opened on 25th September 1992. It cost 6 billion German
Deutschmarks to build and transports goods more cheaply than by road.
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