Digging the Suez Canal during the reign of Dara I and its role in expanding trade relations in the Achaemenid era

Land contact between Egypt and Persia existed for a long period even before the Achaemenid era, and although some pharaohs of Egypt tried to achieve maritime contact between the two countries, their attempts failed for various reasons, and with the success of Cambyses the Achaemenid (529-522 BC) in the occupation of Egypt in 525 BC M. Egypt became affiliated with the Achaemenid Empire, and after his death, Dara I (522-486 BC) came to power after his victory over the piles of Magh, and through Dara I’s knowledge of the measures taken by some of the former Egyptian pharaohs in the field of digging a water channel to connect the Nile River with the sea Al-Ahmar, in turn, decided to complete this great project, and prepared all matters to complete what the Egyptian pharaohs had begun, and he was able, after about a decade, to complete the digging of that channel on the Nile River, through which the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean were connected to each other. After the opening of that canal, which became known as the Suez Canal, commercial relations between Egypt, Persia and India developed to a large extent, and the canal became a key point in the exchange of commercial goods between East and West.