Suez Canal Company Suez Canal Company The Universal Maritime Suez Canal Company (, or simply "Compagnie de Suez" for short) was the corporation that constructed the Suez Canal between 1859 and 1869 and operated it until the 1956 Suez Crisis. It was formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1858, and it owned and operated the canal for many years thereafter. Initially, French private investors were the majority of the shareholders, with Egypt also having a significant stake. When Isma'il Pasha became Wāli of Egypt and Sudan in 1863, he refused to adhere to portions of the concessions to the Canal company made by
What the Ancients Did for Us What the Ancients Did for Us What the Ancients Did for Us is a 2005 BBC documentary series presented by Adam Hart-Davis that examines the impact of ancient civilizations on modern society. The series was produced in conjunction with the Open University and is a departure from the previous series not only in that each episode is an hour long rather than half an hour (though heavily edited half-hour versions have also been shown), but also in that it does not concentrate on a single period of history but rather one ancient civilization per episode including the Chinese, the Indians