Which of the following statements about Suez Canal is/are correct ? 1. Suez is a man-made navigation canal 2. Suez links Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea 3. The economic significance of Suez Canal is less than that of Panama Canal Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 only
- (b)1 and 2 only
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — B, 1 and 2 only. Statement 1 is true: the Suez is an artificial waterway cut across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt, opened on 17 November 1869 after a decade of construction. Statement 2 is true: it runs from Port Said on the Mediterranean south to the city of Suez on the Gulf of Suez, joining the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Statement 3 is false — the Suez is not the lesser of the two great canals. It is the artery of the Europe-to-Asia trade, it is a sea-level cut with no locks so it can take far larger ships than Panama's lock chambers allow, and its traffic count runs well ahead: Wikipedia records more than 20,600 vessels through Suez in 2021, against 14,702 through Panama in 2008.
- (a)1 only — This drops statement 2, but the Mediterranean-to-Red-Sea link is the canal's whole purpose — it is what removes the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope from the Europe-Asia route.
- (c)2 and 3 only — Doubly wrong. It rejects statement 1, although the Suez is unquestionably a man-made cut, and it accepts statement 3, which reverses the real ranking of the two canals.
- (d)1, 2 and 3 — The tempting option, because the first two statements are so obviously true that a candidate stops reading carefully. Statement 3 fails: the Suez is the more heavily used and more strategically weighted of the two waterways.
The Suez Canal is 193.30 km long and cuts the Isthmus of Suez, so a ship sailing between Europe and Asia no longer has to round Africa. Two engineering facts explain its commercial weight. It is a SEA-LEVEL canal with no locks, because the two seas it joins are at effectively the same level, so its capacity is set by width and draught rather than by the size of a lock chamber. The Panama Canal, by contrast, lifts ships over an isthmus through a lock system, and those chambers cap the dimensions of any vessel using it.
Statement 3 is the only one that needs thought, and the way to settle it is to ask what each canal shortens. Suez shortens Europe-to-Asia, the busiest long-haul trade lane in the world; Panama shortens Atlantic-to-Pacific across the Americas. Compare like with like and quote the years, since the two figures come from different years — more than 20,600 vessels transited Suez in 2021 and 14,702 transited Panama in 2008. As of the September 2023 exam the Suez was operating normally. Since then the picture has changed: after attacks on shipping in the Red Sea from November 2023, over 2,000 ships had diverted away from the Red Sea by March 2024, many going round the Cape of Good Hope instead, and one recorded estimate put the resulting fall in global trade at 1.3 per cent between November and December 2023. That disruption reduced the canal's traffic; it did not alter the geography this question tests.
- The Suez Canal is 193.30 km long across the Isthmus of Suez and opened on 17 November 1869.
- It is a sea-level canal with no locks, unlike the Panama Canal, which is 82 km long and uses locks.
- It joins the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said to the Red Sea at the city of Suez.
- More than 20,600 vessels transited the Suez Canal in 2021, an average of 56 a day.
- Attributing locks to the Suez — it is a sea-level canal; the locks belong to Panama.
- Assuming that because Panama is the more famous engineering feat it must carry more trade.
- Comparing traffic figures from different years without saying so.
Asked as a statements-and-code set on the canal's basic geography with one comparative claim planted, or as a 'which statement is not correct' pick.
One will NOT have to pass through the Suez Canal while going from Mumbai to
- (a) Alexandria
- (b) Suez
- (c) Port Said
- (d) Benghazi
Answer(b) Suez
The same geography turned into a navigation puzzle. A ship from Mumbai reaches the city of Suez at the canal's southern mouth, so it never enters the cut; the Mediterranean ports on the list all require the full transit.
Which one of the following countries is planning to construct a rival to the Panama Canal to link the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans?
- (a) Colombia
- (b) Costa Rica
- (c) Guatemala
- (d) Nicaragua
Answer(d) Nicaragua
The other canal in the comparison. Keeping the two straight — Suez joins two seas across an isthmus in Egypt, Panama joins two oceans across an isthmus in Central America — is exactly what statement 3 was testing.
Which one of the following statements about the Suez Canal is not correct?
- (a) The Suez Canal was constructed in 1869.
- (b) It links the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
- (c) It has a six lock system and ships cross the different levels through these locks.
- (d) It has given Europe a new gateway to the Indian Ocean.
Answer(c) It has a six lock system and ships cross the different levels through these locks.
NDA's earlier Suez question, and it settles the lock point directly — the false statement there was the one crediting Suez with locks. Read together, the two items cover date, link, locks and commercial weight.
The Panama Canal opened in 1914, links
- (a) Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea
- (b) Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean
- (c) Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean
- (d) Adriatic Sea and Black Sea
Answer(b) Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean
The companion fact NDA has already tested — and note that its first wrong option is the Suez link, confirming that the paper-setters expect candidates to confuse the two canals.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following statements about the Suez Canal is correct?
- (a)It uses a system of locks to lift ships across a summit level
- (b)It is a sea-level canal without locks
- (c)It links the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans
- (d)It is a natural strait widened by dredging
Answer(b) It is a sea-level canal without locks — the two seas it joins stand at effectively the same level.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Suez Canal was opened to navigation in the year
- (a)1856
- (b)1869
- (c)1914
- (d)1956
Answer(b) 1869 — it opened on 17 November 1869; 1914 is the Panama Canal and 1956 the year Suez was nationalised.