Joining the Red Sea to the Mediterranean

Al-Masudi presents old attempts to join the Red Sea (the Qulzum) with the Roman Sea (the Mediterranean), which were never completed. ²

He says that one of the Roman kings dug a channel between the two seas and did not succeed, because the Qulzum was higher and the Roman sea lower. The place of his digging is known as "the crocodile's tail" near the city of Qulzum. He also dug another gulf near Tinnis and Damietta known as al-Zabr and al-Khabiyya, through which ships used to enter, until it was filled in over the passage of ages. ²

Al-Masudi mentions that al-Rashid tried to join the two seas, but the division of the Nile's water did not allow it for him. Then he tried it from the direction of al-Farama and Tinnis. Yahya ibn Khalid told him that the Romans would snatch people from the Sacred Mosque and the circumambulation, because their ships would reach the sea of the Hijaz, and so he refrained. ²

He relates that Amr ibn al-As attempted it when he was in Egypt, and that Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) forbade him for the same reason. ²