This illustration is taken from the work on which Basil has been so largely dependent, the Meterology of Aristotle (i. 14, 548).  Pliny (vi. 33) writes:  “Daneos Portus, ex quo navigabilem alveum perducere in Nilum, qua parte ad Delta dictum decurrit lxii. mill. D. Pass. intervallo, quod inter flumen et Rubrum mare inter est, primus omnium Sesostris Ægypti rex cogitavit; mox Darius Persarum; deinde Ptolemæus sequens” (i.e. Ptolemy II.) “…deterruit inundationis metus, excelsiore tribus cubitis Rubro mari comperto quam terra Ægypti.”  Herodotus (ii. 158) attributes the canal to Necho.  Strabo (xvii. 804) says Darius, in supposing Egypt to lie lower than the sea, was ψευδεῖ πεισθείς.  The early canal, choked by sand, was reopened by Trajan, and choked again.  Amron, Omar’s general, again cleared it, but it was blocked a.d. 767.  The present Suez Canal, opened in 1869, follows a new course.