Ferdinand de Lesseps

Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), also Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps, was a French diplomatist, born at Versailles. He conceived the scheme of connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean in 1854, and saw it finished as the Suez Canal in 1869. He projected a similar scheme for a canal at Panama, but it ended in failure, disgrace, and ruin to the projectors as well as others.

Nearby pages
Ferdinand Freiligrath, Ferdinand Hitzig, Ferdinand I, Ferdinand I the king of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand II, Ferdinand II the king of Sicilies