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Why were passing bays built in the original Suez Canal?
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Suez Canal
Ships in the Suez Canal in Egypt. One of the world's most important shipping lanes, the Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
When the Suez Canal first opened in 1869, it featured a relatively narrow channel, measuring only 22 meters (72 feet) wide at the bottom and 61 to 91 meters (200 to 300 feet) wide at the surface. Because of these restricted dimensions, passing bays were built every 8 to 10 km (5 to 6 miles) to allow ships to pass one another safely.1
Despite these provisions, the narrow and tortuous nature of the original channel led to approximately 3,000 ship groundings between 1870 and 1884, necessitating subsequent decades of major improvements, widenings, and the construction of additional bypasses to accommodate modern maritime traffic.1