Renee Miller, age 9, of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for his question:

How did the Suez Canal get its name?

Long ages ago, the people of Egypt toiled to reclaim a patch of dry land from the northern arm of the Red Sea. They settled it and named it A1 Suways. It stood at the crossways of trade routes to the far east and became a busy port. Travelers from western Europe called it Suez    and Suez became a very popular name in those parts. The northern arm of the Red Sea is the Gulf of Suez. The Isthmus of Suez is a narrow strip of land that separates Africa from Asia.

Then about a century ago, a splendid canal was dug across the Isthmus of Suez. This 100 mile ditch through the desert connected the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf o€ Suez and the Red Sea. It seemed only logical to name the new waterway the Suez Canal. Before it was built, ships between Europe and the far east had to sail all around the tip of Africa. The famous canal led from the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean and saved thousands of miles of sea voyaging.