Psammetichus had a son, Necos, who became king of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt. It was he who began building the canal into the +Red Sea [42,15] (sea) Red Sea,This canal ran from near Tel Basta ( +Tall Bastah [31.516,30.566] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Bubastis) apparently to +Suez [32.55,29.966] (inhabited place), Suez, Urban, Egypt, Africa Suez. Inscriptions recording Darius' construction of it have been found in the neighborhood. which was finished by Darius the Persian. This is four days' voyage in length, and it was dug wide enough for two triremes to move in it rowed abreast.

It is fed by the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile, and is carried from a little above +Tall Bastah [31.516,30.566] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Bubastis by the Arabian town of Patumus; it issues into the Red Sea. Digging began in the part of the Egyptian plain nearest to Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), AsiaArabia; the mountains that extend to Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, AfricaMemphis (the mountains where the stone quarries are) come close to this plain;

the canal is led along the foothills of these mountains in a long reach from west to east; passing then into a ravine, it bears southward out of the hill country towards the Persian Gulf [53.83,25.583] (gulf), AsiaArabian Gulf.

Now the shortest and most direct passage from the northern to the southern or +Red Sea [42,15] (sea) Red Sea is from the Casian promontory, the boundary between Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt and +Syria [38,35] (nation), Asia Syria, to the Persian Gulf [53.83,25.583] (gulf), AsiaArabian Gulf, and this is a distance of one hundred and twenty five miles, neither more nor less;

this is the most direct route, but the canal is far longer, inasmuch as it is more crooked. In Necos' reign, a hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians died digging it. Necos stopped work, stayed by a prophetic utterance that he was toiling beforehand for the barbarian. The Egyptians call all men of other languages barbarians.