As the older Ptolemaic channel, which was the first to use locks, Trajan's canal linked Mediterranean and Red Sea not directly, but via the Nile. Unlike the Greek channel, though, which branched off the Pelusiac arm, the Roman canal started off the main branch of the Nile at Babylon, 60 km to the south. It joined the Ptolemaic dyke at Belbeis, eventually discharging into the Gulf of Suez at Arsinoe.
As the older Ptolemaic channel, which was the first to use locks, Trajan's canal linked Mediterranean and Red Sea not directly, but via the Nile. Unlike the Greek channel, though, which branched off the Pelusiac arm, the Roman canal started off the main branch of the Nile at Babylon, 60 km to the south. It joined the Ptolemaic dyke at Belbeis, eventually discharging into the Gulf of Suez at Arsinoe.
The Babylon Fortress, a major military stronghold of the Byzantine Empire in Egypt, was captured by forces of the Rashidun Caliphate after a prolonged siege in 640.
Bizantine bridge
Roman Rd
