English: Mahmoudiyah Canal, Egypt in 1892. "THE MAHMUDIYAH CANAL, EGYPT — This great work was constructed by the famous Viceroy of Egypt, Mohammed Ali in 1819. His intention was to connect thus the city of Alexandria with Cairo and the Delta of the Nile, and at the same time to supply the former city with Nile water. He succeeded, but at a fearful cost of human life. He forced 250,000 of the peasants of Egypt to work here like galley-slaves, and 20,000 of them are said to have perished from exposure and inhuman treatment. The cost of the canal in money was about one and a half million dollars. This artificial river is wide and deep enough to be traversed by barges and small steamers, and where it receives its supply of water from a branch of the Nile, its banks are lined with solid brick masonry. There are also four engines, of 100 horse-power each, which give an impetus to the water so as to make it flow towards Alexandria. The construction of this canal has been of immense benefit to Egypt. Wherever the waters of the Nile are carried, there can be found life and fertility. Beyond the reach of its waves lies the region of Death — the Desert. The great occupation of the people, therefore, is now, as it was thousands of years ago, irrigation. Only bring the water to the land in the seasons, when the river does not overflow its banks, and the Nile will make it glow with beauty and fertility. What a marvelous river, therefore, is this! Hemmed in on the east and west by scorching deserts, it nevertheless rescues from their withering grasp the two long strips of territory on either bank, which formed the marvelous Egypt of antiquity, and constitute the Egypt of today. (from John L. Stoddard, Glimpses of the world; a portfolio of photographs of the marvelous works of God and man – 1892) "