The dream of building a waterway to connect the Mediterranean and the Red Sea was alive for centuries before De Lesseps constructed the Suez Canal. During the reign of Senousret between 200 and 180 B.C. a canal joining the two seas was cut across the Isthmus, but it was soon silted up for lack of maintenance. In the third century B.C. Ptolemy II conceived a similar project but abandoned it when he was warned that the Red Sea was higher than the Mediterranean and that a canal would flood the lower Egypt. This erroneous idea continued to command acceptance for two thousand years. Napolean considered the possibility of constructing a canal, but he, too, was dissuaded on the plea that the levels of the two seas were different. In 1847 the difference was shown to be negligible. But no permission to construct a canal was granted uritil Ferdinand de lesseps, who enjoyed the privilege of being an Mohammed said secured the first concession to build the suez canal in 1854. Britain immediately grasped the strategic importance of Egypt to her relations with her colonies in the East. Sundas the then Minister of war, wrote to lord Granville, the Foreign secretary. The possession of Egypt by an independent power would be a fatal circumstance to the interests of this country. This was probably the first explicit official statement of the policy which was to govern Britain relations with Egypt for more than 150 years.