Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez. Carte de l’Isthme.

This large-format chromolithographic map is the first edition of the official map issued by the Compagnie universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez, the enterprise responsible for building the canal It was compiled under the direction of its chief engineer, François-Philippe Voisin, and printed in Paris by the leading cartographic firm of Eugène Andriveau-Goujon, with lithography by the master craftsman Erhard Schièble and printing by the Imprimerie Lemercier.

Published in 1866, three years before the canal’s completion, it is among the most visually compelling and technically detailed maps ever made of the project. During the First World War, the Imperial German Army judged it so accurate and useful that it issued a faithful pirated edition for use by commanders planning an assault on the canal.

Only two institutional examples of the 1866 first edition are known, at the Library of Congress and Harvard University Library.

The Map in Detail

The main map covers the western half of the Nile Delta from Cairo to Damietta, the full Suez Isthmus separating the Mediterranean from the Red Sea, and the western extremities of the Sinai Peninsula. The canal itself is marked by a red line running south from Port Said on the Mediterranean through Lake Timsah and the Great Bitter Lake to the port of Suez on the Red Sea, with distances in kilometers marked at intervals along its course.

The survey, based on the latest trigonometric work, depicts all cities and towns, the branching channels of the Nile Delta, and the desert terrain beyond, rendered in gradients of shading. Roads and the railway network are carefully delineated, including the Cairo-Suez Railway, completed in 1858 by Robert Stephenson, which proved essential to the canal’s construction. The freshwater canal running from the Nile to Ismailia and down to Suez, built primarily to supply drinking water and concrete-mixing water to the workforce, is also shown, as are the traces of the ancient canals that had crossed the isthmus in antiquity.

The composition is enriched by an array of insets. On the left, a vignette of the Nile end of the freshwater canal is accompanied by two longitudinal depth profiles of the canal. On the right, six cross-sectional profiles taken at key points along the route exhibit the channel’s depth and construction. Three detailed town plans in the lower portion depict Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez with their port infrastructure.

Most remarkable of all is the large geological profile occupying the base of the sheet, which records eleven distinct strata in brilliant hand color — the first comprehensive scientific geological survey of the isthmus, made possible by the canal’s excavation.

Historical Context

The Suez Canal was the defining infrastructure project of the nineteenth century, an achievement that compressed the sea route between Europe and Asia by thousands of miles and reordered the global economy. Ferdinand de Lesseps, who drove the project through decades of political opposition, financial crisis, and diplomatic difficulty, commissioned this map as both a technical document and a triumphant promotional statement. The 1866 date is significant: the canal’s final configuration had been determined and its completion assured, making this a map of something that existed as engineering certainty even before it existed in water.

The geological profile was a byproduct of construction that drew enormous scientific interest, as the excavation exposed strata previously inaccessible for study. In 1917, the map’s utility was demonstrated in the most dramatic fashion. The Imperial German Army’s cartographic department, the Stellvertretender Generalstab der Armee, issued a pirated edition at the beginning of that year for use by German and Ottoman commanders planning a renewed assault on the canal from their bases in Palestine — an attack that, if successful, would have severed Britain’s lifeline to India. The edition was rendered obsolete almost immediately, as a British imperial offensive pushed the front eastward into Palestine by the end of February 1917, removing the canal from danger for the remainder of the war.

Publication History and Census

This map was published in 1866 by the Compagnie universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez, designed and printed by Eugène Andriveau-Goujon in Paris, with lithography by Erhard Schièble and printing by the Imprimerie Lemercier. A second edition was published in 1869, the year of the canal’s opening; the two editions are practically identical, and both were issued in very small print runs, intended as presentation pieces for major investors and political dignitaries. A German pirated edition was issued by the Stellvertretender Generalstab der Armee in early 1917.

All editions are rare. Two institutional examples of the 1866 first edition are known: the Library of Congress and Harvard University Library. Any edition has appeared on the market only a handful of times in the past twenty-five years.