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7 Interesting Suez Canal Facts [UPDATED]

Suez Canal Facts

Built in: 1869

Located in: Egypt

Length: 193.3 Km or 120.11 mi

Panama Canal, Volga-Don Canal, the Corinth Canal, the Grand Canal, and the Suez Canal happen to be the most famous man-made canals in the world. They are responsible for carrying out the majority of marine transportation in the most economically efficient way possible.

Suez Canal has a special place in History and has been at the center stage of global conflicts and intrigues. Here are some of the fun Suez Canal facts which we are sure will interest you.

7 Interesting Suez Canal Facts

Suez Canal: Port Said – Courtesy – https://ift.tt/2J9K8e9

Where is the Suez Canal located?

The Suez Canal is located in Egypt. It is an artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It saves 7000 Km of extra travel by enabling water vessels to take a shorter way through Mediterranean and Red Seas. Navigating between North Atlantic and northern Indian Oceans these vessels can altogether avoid the South Atlantic and South Indian Oceans, thereby saving a lot of time and money in the process. Situated at the city of Suez, the canal extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik.

What are the dimensions of The Suez Canal?

If you include the northern and southern access channels, the length of the Suez Canal is 193.3 Km or 120.11 mi. On average, more than 47 vessels traverse this canal.

Who built the Suez Canal and when was it built?

Napoleon Bonaparte, after his Egyptian conquest in 1798 considered building the canal. So he sent some surveyors to gather information regarding the plausibility of his idea. Unfortunately, they erroneously reported that the Red Sea being around 30 ft higher than the Mediterranean Sea would result in floods of disastrous proportions should Napoleon try to build the Suez Canal. Hence Napoleon abandoned the project of constructing the Suez Canal. Luckily in 1847, a group of researchers confirmed those surveyors’ miscalculations, stating that there was no significant difference in the altitudes of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, in 1859 a Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps formed the Suez Canal Company after much discussion, thereby materializing an almost century-long vision.

How was the Suez Canal Built?

Though in the later stages the Suez Canal Company used steam-powered machines explicitly designed for the purpose the early years of its development involved manual labor. The Egyptian government forced poor peasants to work in exchange for meager pay and often threatened them with violence. So despite having cheap labor, the process of construction was prolonged.

After the ban on forced labor in 1863 by the Egyptian ruler Ismail Pasha, the company was forced to switch to alternatives to compensate for the shortage of laborers. The usage of the steam-powered equipment boosted the workflow by a tremendous amount.

The History of the Statue of Liberty

Now, this is a fun fact. Towards the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi tried to convince Ferdinand de Lesseps to let him build a sculpture called the “Egypt Bringing Light to Asia” at its Mediterranean entrance. He was inspired by work of Chares of Lindos, a sculptor in 280 BC, the Colossus of Rhodes. It was a statue of the Greek sun-god Helios erected in the city of Rhodes.

The statue was 108 feet high and was the tallest statue of the ancient world. Bartholdi wanted to create something of similar proportions. He imagined a 90 ft tall statue of a woman wearing the type of clothes worn by Egyptian peasants. She would hold a massive torch which would also be used as a lighthouse to guide ships into this canal.

Lesseps never agreed, and hence the project was never realized. But Bartholdi did not give up hope. He kept pitching this idea at several places until finally in 1886 he unveiled the complete version in New York Harbour. Though better known to the world as the Statue of Liberty, its official name is “Liberty Enlightening the World.”

War and Politics Involving the Suez Canal

Franz Xaver Winterhalter Napoleon III

Britain and France ruled Egypt at that time. Lesseps was a French diplomat. His proposal for the Suez Canal had the support of the French Emperor Napoleon III. It led the British to believe that this was a political scheme that intended to undermine British dominance in global shipping. They were up in arms against Lesseps who in turn exchanged verbal attacks with the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. Robert Stephenson spoke against this project in the parliament causing Lesseps to challenge the former to a duel. Even after all this, the British Empire continued criticizing the plan but ironically ended up buying a 44% stake in the waterway when the Egyptian government auctioned its portion of shares.

In 1888, it was decided in the Convention of Constantinople that the Suez Canal would operate as a neutral zone. Meanwhile, it was to remain under the protection of the British who successfully defended it against the Ottoman Empire during World War I in 1915.

During World War II, the Axis powers of Italy and Germany tried to capture the Suez Canal. It called for the Anglo Egyptian Treaty of 1936 which reaffirmed British control over the Suez Canal. Though it was decided earlier that the waterway would remain neutral, Axis ships, for most of the war, were banned from accessing it. When World War II ended the Egyptians withdrew from the treaty in 1951.

Suez Crisis

It was in the year 1956 that the British finally withdrew their troops from the Suez Canal and handed its control over to President Gamal Abder Nasser of Egypt. Nasser handed over the ownership to the Suez Canal Authority. It earned him the anger of the British and the United States who initially withdrew the financial support that they had promised for the improvement of the canal.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Nasser’s government decided to close the Straits of Tiran, which linked Israel with the Red Sea. It angered the European powers, and after that Briain, France and Israel retaliated by threatening to invade Egypt. It is known in history as the Suez Crisis. The Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, Lester B. Pearson became anxious that the situation would worsen and thereby proposed to the United Nations the formation of a peacekeeping force for the protection of the canal ensuring that it remained accessible to all. On 4th November 1956, the U.N. consented to this proposal. But if you believe that this was the last time that the Suez Canal got entangled in an international conflict, you would be thoroughly mistaken.

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During the Six-Day War of 1967, Nasser ordered the peacekeeping forces out of the Sinai Peninsula. Israel took this opportunity to invade the east bank of the Suez Canal successfully.

Nasser reacted by blocking all maritime traffic with mines and scuttled ships, resulting in 15 international vessels getting trapped. These cargo ships remained stuck for eight years! They were nicknamed the ‘yellow fleet’ because of the sand that accumulated on the ships’ decks.

Though most of the crew members were rotated on 3-month assignments, the rest had to satisfy themselves by building a floating community. It did become a full-fledged community with its internal trade, social events, and sports!

These ships were finally allowed to leave in 1975. But by then except for two, the vessels could hardly sail.

Suez Canal in Modern Times

Since then the Suez Canal has undergone much development. Egypt successfully expanded the Suez Canal in 2015. In addition to the 35 Km long shipping lane beside the main waterway, the project also included increasing the depth of certain parts in the canal. The construction of the Ballah Bypass was started in August in 2014. This was done to speed up the canal’s transit time.

The ‘New Suez Canal’, as the expansion was called, was done with the intention of doubling the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. The total cost of the project stood somewhere around $8.4 billion.

The Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new site on 24th February 2016. It helps in the berthing and unberthing of vessels from the East Terminus. With this new expansion, the canal could now handle two-way traffic and the passage of larger ships. The 400-meter long OOCL Hong Kong passed through the Suez Canalon in December 2017. The world’s largest container ship was carrying 21,400 containers. The Egyptian authorities believe that this project will double the canal’s revenue by the year 2023.

Around 8% of global sea-borne trade takes place through the Suez Canal. It has tremendously boosted the Egyptian economy. Reports from Reuters state that the Suez Canal generated revenue of $5.3 billion in 2017.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone refers to the set of locations in the vicinity of the canal, where there is no custom rate. It has been done to attract investment in those areas. This zone covers an area of 600 square kilometers. The projects in this zone are collectively referred to as the Suez Canal Area Developmental Project (SCADP).

Canals serve as an essential factor in the growth and development of a civilization. In the past canals provided the most efficient way of transporting industrial goods and were indispensable in the advancement of industrialization. There are still many canals that are in use today, but with the technological progress in the field of transportation, the number has reduced to a fraction of what it was back in those days. Movement of bulk raw materials like coal and ore that fuelled industrial developments required a cost-effective mode of transportation and the canals were highly suited for this job. Much of the mechanization and development in several disciplines of research and technology owe a great deal to this form of transport.

The few canals that survived serve the large transportation industries to move bulk cargo. The replacement of the canals as a transportation medium was a gradual process that started in the United States in the mid-1850s where the cheaper and much easily maintainable railways gained popularity. That in no way undermines the importance of a man-made canal. Throughout the world, it helps in lowering the cost of transportation by shortening the shipping routes and happens to be one of the most reliable medium of international trade. 90% of the world trade is carried out by the 50,000 merchant ships that are providing their services all over the world. It has made the lives of millions of people better. In the present day, the aviation industry has enabled us to transport things within a short period. But water routes remain to be the most cost-effective mode of carrying goods in vast quantities. This is why man-made canals are so essential.

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Nature Beside Cynthia Nixon, a Potential First Lady to Blaze a Trail of Her Own

Nature Beside Cynthia Nixon, a Potential First Lady to Blaze a Trail of Her Own Nature Beside Cynthia Nixon, a Potential First Lady to Blaze a Trail of Her Own http://www.nature-business.com/nature-beside-cynthia-nixon-a-potential-first-lady-to-blaze-a-trail-of-her-own/

Nature

The tabloid media had camped outside the five-story prewar building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mystery woman who had stolen the heart of Cynthia Nixon, the “Sex and the City” star.

From inside Ms. Nixon’s building, Christine Marinoni saw the paparazzi, braced herself — and walked right past.

“They were looking for some blonde bombshell, or who knows what,” Ms. Marinoni said in an interview.

Ms. Marinoni now laughs as she recalls the frenzied hunt for her identity in 2004, the bewildered reporters who did not know what to make of her — an unostentatious, redheaded community organizer, who preferred plaid shirts to evening gowns, and who before meeting Ms. Nixon had never subscribed to cable TV. The hubbub over Ms. Nixon leaving her male partner and dating a woman seems faraway, the product of a different time.

And the celebrity magazines grew accustomed to the couple, gauzily covering their engagement, child’s birth and marriage.

But Ms. Marinoni, who often uses “shy” as one of the first words to describe herself, never grew entirely comfortable with them. During her pregnancy, she hid her stomach with a bulky coat, surprising not just the paparazzi but even neighbors when she gave birth. “They were like, ‘Where did the baby come from?’” she recounted.

Yet with Ms. Nixon running against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in next week’s Democratic primary, Ms. Marinoni has once again found herself in the spotlight, albeit of a different sort.

If elected, Ms. Nixon would be the state’s first governor to identify openly as queer, the word she and her wife prefer to describe their sexuality. Ms. Marinoni would be the state’s first queer first lady.

The couple’s personal lives have been closely intertwined with Ms. Nixon’s plunge into politics. Ms. Nixon says she was inspired to run for office because of her passion for education advocacy, the same advocacy that introduced her to Ms. Marinoni. The couple announced their engagement at a rally for same-sex marriage and traveled to Albany to lobby lawmakers on the issue.

Image

After Cynthia Nixon declared her bid for governor, her wife, Christine Marinoni, became a visible presence on the campaign trail, as the couple appeared together at events including the 2018 New York City Pride March.CreditJeenah Moon for The New York Times

Ms. Marinoni has proved as wary of the political press as of the celebrity, and in a rare interview, she downplayed her involvement in the campaign. As first lady, she said, she would remain in the background too, anchoring the family while Ms. Nixon governed.

“She’s been approached by folks repeatedly — not me, it was never my idea — who were excited about the prospects,” Ms. Marinoni, who has no official role in the campaign, said of Ms. Nixon’s decision to enter the race.

As the wife of a celebrity, she said she had perfected the art of dodging attention. “I now know how to step in or out of the spotlight, and I choose generally to stay out.”

But spotlight or not, people who have been involved with the campaign described Ms. Marinoni as an essential force in it: corralling support, shaping strategy, even serving as a proxy of sorts for her wife during policy or tactical discussions when Ms. Nixon is on the trail.

“Cynthia’s the candidate, and she’s kind of the embodiment of what we’re all trying to move on a state level,” said Jonathan Westin, the executive director of the nonprofit New York Communities for Change, which asked Ms. Nixon to run. “But the actual putting it together — I mean, Christine has been irreplaceable.”

Ms. Marinoni is a frequent presence at campaign events, marching alongside Ms. Nixon in the New York City Pride parade or collecting signatures to secure her spot on the ballot. After Ms. Nixon’s debate with Mr. Cuomo, Ms. Marinoni strode through the press room to make sure reporters got the story right: “She kicked ass! Clearly won. Clearly won.”

Ms. Marinoni was introduced to activism early. She grew up on Bainbridge Island, about 10 miles west of Seattle, where her father was a professor and her mother the off-and-on president of her teacher’s union.

After moving to New York in the early 1990s, Ms. Marinoni did a stint as a neighborhood organizer in the Bronx, then studied economic development at Columbia University, thinking she might work in international affairs.

She turned instead to education organizing, leading a coalition of parents that became the statewide Alliance for Quality Education. That was where she met Ms. Nixon, who became a spokeswoman for the group after learning of cuts to her oldest child’s school; their relationship became public in 2004, and they married in 2012.

Image

Ms. Marinoni and Ms. Nixon at the 2017 Tony Awards, where Ms. Nixon won the award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for “The Little Foxes.”CreditBruce Glikas/FilmMagic, via Getty Images

Fighting for funding for low-income school districts appealed to Ms. Marinoni for a simple reason: “It spoke fundamentally about shifting power.”

The next two decades of Ms. Marinoni’s career can be read as a continued effort to shift power — even as she herself also moved closer to the centers of them. After leaving the Alliance for Quality Education, she organized security officers with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, a 160,000-member labor heavyweight. In 2014, Ms. Marinoni joined the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose 2013 campaign she and Ms. Nixon had bolstered.

Driving the moves was a desire, even an impatience, for results. “I wanted to work within an infrastructure where they had just the power and the muscle and the ability to really fully fund a campaign — to get things done,” Ms. Marinoni said of her switch to union organizing.

But her marriage to Ms. Nixon has also led her to step away from advocacy.

For seven years before joining City Hall, she stayed home to care for Ms. Nixon’s two children from her previous relationship, and to have their own child.

The experience was grueling. Ms. Marinoni miscarried several times. During one pregnancy, in her fourth month, the doctors said the child would not be viable. She chose to have an abortion.

Her sixth pregnancy succeeded, and their son, Max, was born in 2011.

As she spoke of her family, Ms. Marinoni grew emotional, at one point choking up suddenly. She did not come out until she was 26, she said, and never envisioned that she might one day be happily married with kids.

“I always just pictured myself like a little worker bee my entire life,” she said. “But it’s like this amazing gift.”

Perhaps in part for that reason, Ms. Marinoni’s descriptions of her role in the campaign centered far more around her role as a wife and mother than as a strategist. She insisted that she had little to do with Ms. Nixon’s decision to run (“I tried to play the supportive-of-what-you-decide bystander”) and emphasized the gap between her brand of traditional organizing and the digital outreach that the Nixon campaign has touted as key to victory.

Still, people involved with the campaign said Ms. Marinoni was omnipresent. When New York Communities for Change was wooing Ms. Nixon, Mr. Westin spoke with Ms. Marinoni about the urgency of a progressive bid during the Trump presidency.

Image

If Ms. Nixon is elected, she would be the state’s first governor to identify openly as queer, the word she and her wife prefer to describe their sexuality. Ms. Marinoni would be the state’s first queer first lady.CreditTodd Heisler/The New York Times

Bill Lipton, the state director of the Working Families Party, which endorsed Ms. Nixon, said Ms. Marinoni was often the liaison who helped rally the party’s support.

The day-to-day work of the campaign draws upon Ms. Marinoni’s expertise, too. Campaign staff often meet at the couple’s home, where Ms. Marinoni, while watching Max, frequently weighs in on strategy. Advisers draw upon Ms. Marinoni’s familiarity with the couple’s networks to identify potential donors.

“She knows Cynthia in a way that none of us do,” Elana Leopold, who leads the campaign’s fund-raising efforts, said. “That’s helpful in figuring out fund-raising and figuring out tactics that might work.”

There may be a strategic reason for Ms. Marinoni’s reticence about her role. Early critics of the campaign suggested that Ms. Nixon’s decision to enter the race was not her own, or that she personally did not have enough political know-how.

But Ms. Marinoni’s reserve also aligns with her personality. People who have worked with her described a determined but understated advocate, one who preferred to grind in the background but would make a statement at the right moment.

“She’s not somebody who comes into a room and tries to dominate every conversation,” said Richard Buery, a former deputy mayor who supervised Ms. Marinoni while she worked in City Hall. “She’s somebody who speaks when she has something to say.”

Ms. Marinoni acknowledged that her wife’s candidacy would — and had — thrust her into a more public role, a fact to which she seemed somewhat resigned.

“The press is never particularly nice to me,” she said with a laugh. When she and Ms. Nixon first confirmed their relationship, an online contest asked if she more resembled the actor Danny Bonaduce or Prince Harry. “All of which I found quite entertaining,” she added.

And she conceded that, if Ms. Nixon won, she might need to retreat again from her own work. (She resigned from City Hall in March, a month before Ms. Nixon declared her candidacy.)

Still, her advocacy background would not be entirely absent from the governor’s mansion.

“I’ll always dip my toe into some organizing here or there,” she said. “I keep myself busy.”

Follow Vivian Wang on Twitter: @vwang3

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/nyregion/cynthia-nixon-christine-marinoni-wife.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/vivian-wang

Nature Beside Cynthia Nixon, a Potential First Lady to Blaze a Trail of Her Own, in 2018-09-06 18:57:38

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

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blogwonderwebsites · 6 years

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Nature Beside Cynthia Nixon, a Potential First Lady to Blaze a Trail of Her Own

Nature

From inside Ms. Nixon’s building, Christine Marinoni saw the paparazzi, braced herself — and walked right past.

“They were looking for some blonde bombshell, or who knows what,” Ms. Marinoni said in an interview.

And the celebrity magazines grew accustomed to the couple, gauzily covering their engagement, child’s birth and marriage.

Yet with Ms. Nixon running against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in next week’s Democratic primary, Ms. Marinoni has once again found herself in the spotlight, albeit of a different sort.

Image

As the wife of a celebrity, she said she had perfected the art of dodging attention. “I now know how to step in or out of the spotlight, and I choose generally to stay out.”

Image

Ms. Marinoni and Ms. Nixon at the 2017 Tony Awards, where Ms. Nixon won the award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for “The Little Foxes.”CreditBruce Glikas/FilmMagic, via Getty Images

Fighting for funding for low-income school districts appealed to Ms. Marinoni for a simple reason: “It spoke fundamentally about shifting power.”

But her marriage to Ms. Nixon has also led her to step away from advocacy.

For seven years before joining City Hall, she stayed home to care for Ms. Nixon’s two children from her previous relationship, and to have their own child.

The experience was grueling. Ms. Marinoni miscarried several times. During one pregnancy, in her fourth month, the doctors said the child would not be viable. She chose to have an abortion.

Her sixth pregnancy succeeded, and their son, Max, was born in 2011.

“I always just pictured myself like a little worker bee my entire life,” she said. “But it’s like this amazing gift.”

Image

Bill Lipton, the state director of the Working Families Party, which endorsed Ms. Nixon, said Ms. Marinoni was often the liaison who helped rally the party’s support.

Ms. Marinoni acknowledged that her wife’s candidacy would — and had — thrust her into a more public role, a fact to which she seemed somewhat resigned.

And she conceded that, if Ms. Nixon won, she might need to retreat again from her own work. (She resigned from City Hall in March, a month before Ms. Nixon declared her candidacy.)

Still, her advocacy background would not be entirely absent from the governor’s mansion.

“I’ll always dip my toe into some organizing here or there,” she said. “I keep myself busy.”

Follow Vivian Wang on Twitter: @vwang3

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/nyregion/cynthia-nixon-christine-marinoni-wife.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/vivian-wang

Nature Beside Cynthia Nixon, a Potential First Lady to Blaze a Trail of Her Own, in 2018-09-06 18:57:38

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

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nishantwap · 6 years

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Egypt’s Sisi Clamped Down on Political Opposition—Next Up Is the Economy

New Post has been published on https://www.hsnews.us/egypts-sisi-clamped-down-on-political-opposition-next-up-is-the-economy/

Egypt’s Sisi Clamped Down on Political Opposition—Next Up Is the Economy

Egypt’s Sisi Clamped Down on Political Opposition—Next Up Is the Economy – WSJ

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi speaks during the inauguration of an agricultural project at a military base. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The military has amassed a growing business empire under the former general-turned-president, leading to renewed popular resentment

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi speaks during the inauguration of an agricultural project at a military base. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

May 21, 2018 11:10 a.m. ET

CAIRO—Three years ago, President

Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s

government announced that a gleaming new capital city would rise in Egypt’s eastern desert by 2022, featuring tree-lined boulevards, new homes for five million people and the tallest building in Africa.

The project is now well behind schedule, according to its military-controlled developer. The only finished structure is a military-owned hotel in a cream-colored compound. Project spokesman Khaled El Husseiny said just one of three phases is under construction. “We did not plan for anything other than the first phase, I have to be honest,” he said.

President Sisi won re-election in March with 97% of the vote, facing only a token challenger after every credible opposition candidate was jailed or removed from the race. Within the Arab world, Mr. Sisi’s continued rule is an example of the resurgent regimes that increasingly claim victory over the forces unleashed by the 2011 Arab Spring.

Egypt is also an example of how those same forces are bubbling just under the surface. In many ways, Mr. Sisi’s strategy mirrors that of former President Hosni Mubarak, whose nearly three-decade rule here was ended by popular uprising. Like Mr. Mubarak, Mr. Sisi has relied on a vast security state and an economic approach that privileges the military. Many in the business sector complain that Mr. Sisi has gone even farther in sidelining private enterprise, to the detriment of the economy.

“They trust the military first. And the private sector, they accept them,” said

Naguib Sawiris,

a billionaire who says some of his own Egyptian business plans have been thwarted by state intervention. “The security can block any project. They have their own companies now. It’s not a good situation.”

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Egypt’s economy is growing at a modest clip of about 5.4%, according to the central bank. But for the vast majority of Egyptians, living standards have been slipping amid high youth unemployment and rising food prices, fueling some of the same grievances that preceded the revolution—and raising the prospect of a repeat.

Inflation and economic malaise have triggered demonstrations across the wider Middle East in recent months. In Iran in December and January, economic frustration sparked more than a week of protests that left at least 20 people dead. In Tunisia, budget cuts triggered raucous demonstrations and clashes with security forces in 10 cities and towns coinciding with the anniversary of the ouster of long time strongman Zine Al Abedine Ben Ali. In Jordan, sit-ins and other protests took place in January in reaction to the rising price of bread. Spontaneous protests erupted in Egypt earlier this month after the government announced a surprise increase in the price of subway tickets.

In the Gulf, wealthy monarchies count Egypt’s government as a firewall against a repeat of the popular upheaval.

“I prayed to God that Egypt would not collapse,” said Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince

Mohammed bin Salman

during a visit to Cairo in March.

A former commander of the armed forces, Mr. Sisi surged to power after he led the overthrow in 2013 of the elected Islamist President

Mohammed Morsi.

Following the coup, security forces cracked down on Mr. Morsi’s supporters and other political opponents, killing at least a thousand people and jailing tens of thousands of others, according to rights groups.

Mr. Sisi promised Egyptians stability and prosperity, claiming credit for steering Egypt away from the turmoil and war that engulfed other Arab countries such as Syria, Libya, and Yemen.

For a time, Mr Sisi enjoyed cult status. His inspired supporters stamped his likeness on everything from chocolates to women’s underwear.

But the sheen has worn off his presidency. Stability has proved elusive as the government struggles to halt attacks by militant groups, including the Islamic State which has killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians in recent years.

Discontent has even surfaced within the same military establishment that brought Mr. Sisi to power. Since December, the government has detained and sidelined a series of opponents who stepped forward to challenge the president in the election, including three current and former military officers.

Although Mr. Sisi has helped expand the military’s economic profile, would-be opposition candidates from military backgrounds assailed the president’s record on security, the economy, and a lack of political freedoms.

Mr. Sisi’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Egypt’s armed forces spokesman declined to comment.

Analysts say Mr. Sisi sees himself as a part of a world-wide cohort of strongman rulers. Prior to Egypt’s vote, he made a point of congratulating Russia’s President

Vladimir Putin

on his victory in a scripted election. He also lauded China’s President

Xi Jinping,

who just became China’s de facto leader for life.

Egypt’s military has played a major role in the economy for decades. Business ventures helped the armed forces offset budget cuts imposed by Mr. Mubarak in the years following the 1978 peace treaty with Israel. By the end of Mr. Mubarak’s 30 years in power, the military owned supermarkets and hotels and also made pasta as well as weapons, taking advantage of its tax-exempt status and access to cheap labor in the form of conscripted soldiers.

But under Mr. Sisi, the military has achieved new heights of economic power. The exact percentage of the economy controlled by the armed forces is impossible to calculate, as military-linked enterprises don’t disclose their profits and the details of the military’s budget aren’t made public. Any accounting by government watchdogs is now even harder, since Egypt’s former chief corruption auditor is on military trial after he joined an opposition presidential campaign and threatened to release incriminating evidence about the military leadership.

In an interview with state TV in March, Mr. Sisi said the military makes up only 2% to 3% of the economy. “If it was 50% I would have been proud,” he said. “The armed forces are part of the government.”

Experts believe the true size of the military’s economic role is much higher than the official figure, based on observations of army-led enterprises.

“He doesn’t trust the private sector. He doesn’t trust businessmen,” said

Andrew Miller,

a former official responsible for Egypt at the U.S. National Security Council.

When Mr. Sisi came to power, he turned to the military to help fix the stumbling economy. He assigned the Armed Forces Engineering Authority to organize an expansion of the Suez Canal, one of his signature megaprojects.

With Mr. Sisi’s blessing, the military soon encroached on civilian enterprises too. The government discarded a civilian-authored plan to parcel out land along the canal to build an industrial zone and port area. He instead awarded a pair of contracts, including one to a partnership between the military and a private developer, according to Ahmed Darwish, the former chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone. To date, the planned zone hasn’t materialized, although the government says it is pressing ahead with the project.

Mr. Darwish was later replaced at his post by Admiral Mohab Mamish, a military leader who also heads the Suez Canal Authority. Several other business-oriented civilian officials have departed Mr. Sisi’s government over the years, including two economists who served in previous cabinets, leaving the military even more dominant.

The military also exerts influence through a diffuse network of current and former officers who sit on corporate boards and own stakes in private businesses. Those holdings help the military class gain control and profit even from enterprises it doesn’t directly own.

“They just have a finger in every pie,” said Shana Marshall, an expert on Egyptian political economy at George Washington University.

Military and security officials have orchestrated a takeover of at least three major privately owned television channels in the past two years. A former military spokesman took charge of the satellite channel Al Asema in January 2017. A security company headed by a former military intelligence official took over Al Hayat TV in mid-2017.

The takeover rolled back the influence of some of Egypt’s most powerful civilian businessmen. Mr. Sawiris, the former owner of popular network OnTV, said the government asked him to fire at least three news anchors. When he refused, the network OnTV was taken over by a pro-government steel magnate, before his shares were sold to a company owned by Egypt’s intelligence service in 2017.

Mr. Sawiris said the security forces also have thwarted private-sector business plans. He said his attempt to acquire the investment firm CI Capital was blocked by the security services in 2016. CI Capital didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Objections by Egyptian security services scuttled an attempt last year by

Archer Daniels Midland Co.

to acquire Egypt’s National Company for Maize Products, according to Mr. Sawaris. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Egyptian regulators blocked the planned acquisition.

The maize company, which couldn’t be reached for comment, later merged with another Egyptian company instead.

During Mr. Sisi’s years in power, the government has ushered in regulatory changes that make it easier for the armed forces to do business. His government expanded their ability to strike real estate deals and authorized the military to form a pharmaceutical company.

When a currency crisis resulted in shortages of staples like sugar in 2016, the army began selling subsidized parcels of food out of the backs of trucks. It also supplied baby formula at a discount through pharmacies, touting the move as a victory over the private sector. “The Armed Forces has landed a blow against the greedy monopoly of traders and companies working in the milk industry,” the military spokesman said in a written statement in September 2016.

The most visible element of the military’s expanding economic empire is a vast array of government construction projects, including roads and apartment buildings, such as a national initiative to build a million housing units across the country. New regulations have allowed military-linked contractors to establish a virtual monopoly over public building contracts, experts say.

The so-called “New Administrative Capital” is the most ambitious of those projects. Announced in 2015, the government hoped it would attract five million residents, alleviating overcrowding in greater Cairo, currently home to an estimated 20 million people. Millions live in slums and other informal housing with unreliable access to government services.

The planned new city has offered the military ample opportunity to flex its economic muscle. When a Chinese state company backed out of a $3 billion deal to build government buildings at the site in 2017, the Armed Forces Engineering Authority offered to complete construction at half the price through subcontracts, according to Mr Husseiny.

In March, the Egyptian government announced the start of construction of a commercial district in the new capital, an area that includes plans for a 1,263-foot skyscraper. The building would be Africa’s tallest if completed. To complete this section of the new capital, the military-backed company overseeing the new capital contracted with China State Construction Engineering Corp.

On the dusty road to the construction site is a billboard for the Talaat Moustafa Group, which is one of the largest known investors in the project. The firm of Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a former senior member of Mr. Mubarak’s party, has poured nearly $2 billion in the new capital.

Mr. Moustafa emerged from an extraordinary bout of legal trouble to contribute to the project.

A Cairo criminal court convicted Mr. Moustafa of hiring the former police officer who stabbed to death a Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim in a Dubai hotel in 2008. The trial made Mr. Moustafa into a symbol of what many saw as a culture of excess and cronyism in the twilight years of Mr. Mubarak’s presidency. Mr. Moustafa’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In June 2017, Mr. Sisi pardoned Mr. Moustafa, freeing him from prison and allowing him to resume his position as CEO of his company, TMG Holding. The firm later reported that its revenue more than doubled following Mr. Mousafa’s release and its involvement in the military-led new capital project.

—Amira El Fekki in Cairo and Jacob Bunge in Chicago contributed to this article.

Appeared in the May 22, 2018, print edition as ‘Egypt’s Economy Falls to the Military.’

Egypt’s military is moving fast to gobble up business opportunities, stoking popular resentment.

The military has amassed a growing business empire under the former general-turned-president, leading to renewed popular resentment

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