The Ottomans seriously considered a Suez canal in 1568 but later abandoned it

Evidence

The idea of a canal through the isthmus of Suez received serious consideration, and in 1568 the project is mentioned in a ferman from the Sultan to the governor of Egypt. But such a canal was beyond the technical resources of the time, and finally the Ottomans abandoned the unequal struggle against the superior naval power of the Europeans in the East. From the end of the 16th century Ottoman relations with India were purely commercial and diplomatic. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 598

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• CANDY: The Ottomans planned a Suez canal three centuries before de Lesseps — great small talk nugget.
• QUESTION: What specifically made the canal beyond ‘technical resources of the time’ — surveying, labor, lock technology, or cost?

Related

• The Ottomans considered a Suez canal but were outmatched by European naval power (similarity 0.95)
• Ottoman writers proposed a Suez canal a century before it was built (similarity 0.86)
• Ottoman writers recognized European discoveries as threats to Islamic trade by 1580 (similarity 0.81)