At the frontier of Egypt representations of the Suez canal

The ten years it took to dig the Suez canal, from 1859 to 1869, contribute to a founding chapter in the history of representations of the canal, leaving rich collections of pictures and texts, well before the canal's inauguration. A literary style emerged with its own specific codes, accompanying the work in progress on the site and depicting its effervescence. This literature bears witness to the profound geographical upheavals the canal would bring about and is usually inspired by propaganda considerations, aiming to convince the public of the imminent success of the work, undertaken on a truly pharaonic scale. It also contributes to the invention of the notion of a new oriental space, given legitimate existence for the sake of the Egyptian nation. The excavation work on the canal brought radical changes to a desert region at the edge of this nation, a new frontier to be tamed. It was the incarnation of the end of one world and the beginning of another one, beyond. As soon as the project for cutting through the isthmus was announced, symbolic representations developed to speak of limits and geographical ends, promising the coming together of peoples. Finally, the canal also came to embody an enterprise of conquest, a scientific and technical victory for the Western world, celebrated with much pomp and circumstance after the ten years' work. But the region remained a territory inhabited by a cosmopolitan population which has left a mixed, cross-cultural heritage and a divided memory.