The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The 193.30-kilometre-long (120.11 mi) canal is a key trade route between Europe and Asia.
The Suez Canal from space, showing the Great Bitter Lake at the centre (after the 2015 expansion)
Aerial view of the Suez Canal at Suez
The southern terminus of the Suez Canal at Suez on the Gulf of Suez, at the northern end of the Red Sea
Bathymetric chart, northern Gulf of Suez, route to Cairo, 1856
A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is necessary between maritime shipping routes and waterways used by inland water craft. Maritime shipping routes cross oceans and seas, and some lakes, where navigability is assumed, and no engineering is required, except to provide the draft for deep-sea shipping to approach seaports (channels), or to provide a short cut across an isthmus; this is the function of ship canals. Dredged channels in the sea are not usually described as waterways. There is an exception to this initial distinction, essentially for legal purposes, see under international waters.
A floating market on one of Thailand's waterways
Car ferry across Lake Maggiore, Italy
The European waterway network, differentiating waterways by Class (I to VII)
