Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions were texts written in

Old Persian Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as ( ...

, Elamite, Babylonian and Egyptian on five monuments erected in Wadi Tumilat, commemorating the opening of the " Canal of the Pharaohs", between the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

and the Bitter Lakes. One of the best preserved of these monuments was a

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek language, Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ...

of pink granite, which was discovered by Charles de Lesseps,

Ferdinand de Lesseps Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps (; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times ...

's son, in 1866, 30 kilometers from

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

near Kabret in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. It was erected by

Darius the Great Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...

, king of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

(or Persia), whose reign lasted from 522 to 486 BCE. The monument, also known as the ''Chalouf stele'' (alt. Shaluf Stele), records the construction of a forerunner of the modern

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popula ...

by the Persians, a canal through Wadi Tumilat, connecting the easternmost,

Bubastite Bubastis (Copts, Bohairic Coptic: ''Poubasti''; Ancient Greek, Greek: ''Boubastis'' or ''Boubastos''), also known in Arabic language, Arabic as Tell-Basta or in Egyptian language, Egyptian as Per-Bast, was an ancient Egyptian city. Bubastis ...

, branch of the

with Lake Timsah which was connected to the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

by natural waterways.Barbara Watterson (1997), ''The Egyptians'', Blackwell Publishing, , p.186 The stated purpose of the canal was the creation of a shipping connection between the Nile and the Red Sea, between

and Persia.

Text

Partial transliteration and translation of the inscription: * Transliteration of the

text: *English translation: "King Darius says: I am a Persian; setting out from Persia I conquered Egypt. I ordered to dig this canal from the river that is called Nile and flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended."

References

6th-century BC works 5th-century BC works 1866 archaeological discoveries 1866 in Egypt Ancient Egyptian stelas Achaemenid inscriptions Archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire Akkadian inscriptions Elamite language Suez Inscriptions Suez Canal Archaeological discoveries in Egypt Wadi Tumilat {{Semitic-lang-stub

Text

See also

References