Canal
A canal is an artificial or man-made river channel. Canals are built for several reasons:
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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.
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To take water from a river to irrigate crops. Many farming communities still do this, for example on the banks of the Nile.
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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 |
A boat travelling up the Suez Canal |
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.
