Egypt will inaugurate this week a major expansion of the Suez Canal, completed in a third of the originally estimated time.
This expansion program adds 35 kilometers of new channels, in addition to 37 kilometers of existing waterways that were dredged to allow larger vessels to pass.
The Suez Canal Authority stated that 258 million cubic meters of material were removed from the desert to cut the new channels.
Official unveiling ceremony of the new waterway, also known as the Suez Canal Corridor, will be held on the banks of the New Canal on August 6th, where Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will be joined by world leaders to witness the first ships traveling simultaneously north and south through the Red Sea–Mediterranean crossing.