# Suez Canal: the fact list with sources (Viral Recipe Lab, Ep 11)

Every claim in our sample narration, with its source. Use it as an example of section A, or as the sources you paste into file 1.

| # | Claim in the narration | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Around 600 BC Pharaoh Necho II began a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea | Herodotus II.158; Necho II article; globalsecurity Suez history | ancient Canal of the Pharaohs via Wadi Tumilat |
| 2 | Herodotus wrote that 120,000 died and an oracle told Necho to stop | Herodotus II.158 (reported, "doubtless exaggerated" per historians) | narrated as "Herodotus wrote", not as fact |
| 3 | Darius I finished it and set up granite stelae along it | Chalouf / Suez stelae (Darius inscriptions); globalsecurity | |
| 4 | Sand filled it again and later rulers re-dug it | Ptolemaic, Trajan, Amr ibn al-As works; globalsecurity | |
| 5 | 1798 Napoleon in Egypt; engineer Jacques-Marie Le Père surveyed the isthmus (1799) | Britannica "J. M. Le Père"; napoleon.org | |
| 6 | He calculated the Red Sea ~10 m higher than the Mediterranean (wrong) | Britannica (10 m); Wikipedia 9 m; Linda Hall 8.5 m | narrated as "about ten metres" |
| 7 | Corrected in 1847: the two seas are level | globalsecurity "Early plans 1840-1847" (Bourdaloue) | |
| 8 | Ferdinand de Lesseps, a diplomat, not an engineer; 1854 concession from his friend Said Pasha | Britannica "Ferdinand de Lesseps"; history.com | |
| 9 | Digging began April 1859 | history.com "Ground broken for Suez Canal" (25 April 1859) | |
| 10 | Forced labourers with picks and baskets; forced labour banned around 1863-64 | CNRS news; bunkerist | narrated without an exact year |
| 11 | Cholera and labour disputes delayed the work by years | history.com | |
| 12 | Steam dredgers and excavators took over | CNRS news | |
| 13 | Opened 17 November 1869 with royal guests and fireworks | history.com "Suez Canal opens" (Empress Eugenie attended) | |
| 14 | About 160 km, no locks | CNRS (~160 km); sea-level canal | |
| 15 | 1875: Egypt in debt sold its shares; Britain became the largest shareholder | history.com; CNRS | |
| 16 | July 1956: President Nasser nationalised the canal | history.com | |

Dropped from the original because we could not source them: "Roman engineers built the first canal locks", "the Ottoman sultan hesitated for hundreds of years" (the Sokollu plan existed but details are thin), "10,000 men a month vs one machine in a few days".