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Published on November 12, just days before the grand opening of the Suez Canal on November 17, 1869, this official map by James Wyld documents one of the most significant engineering feats of the 19th century. Stretching roughly 100 miles across the Isthmus of Suez, the canal directly linked the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said with the Red Sea at Suez, creating a continuous maritime route between Europe and Asia without the need to navigate around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope.
Wyld's map traces the full length of the newly completed canal, highlighting major features including the Bitter Lakes, Lake Timsah, Lake Menzaleh, and surrounding desert topography. The map is annotated with hydrological and engineering data and includes inset plans of key port cities and settlements. The longitudinal section at the bottom illustrates the canal’s uniform sea-level profile—remarkable for its lack of locks and minimal elevation change, which made the route especially efficient for steam-powered ships.
Inset at upper left is a global map marking British colonial possessions, underscoring the canal's immense strategic and commercial importance to the British Empire, which would later secure control of the canal zone in the late 19th century.
James Wyld Sr. (1790-1836) was a British cartographer and one of Europe’s leading mapmakers. He made many contributions to cartography, including the introduction of lithography into map printing in 1812.
William Faden, another celebrated cartographer, passed down his mapmaking business to Wyld in 1823. The quality and quantity of Faden’s maps, combined with Wyld’s considerable skill, brought Wyld great prestige.
Wyld was named geographer to Kings George IV and William IV, as well as HRH the Duke of York. In 1825, he was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. Also in 1830, his son, James Wyld Jr., took over his publishing house. Wyld Sr. died of overwork on October 14, 1836.
James Wyld Jr. (1812-87) was a renowned cartographer in his own right and he successfully carried on his father’s business. He gained the title of Geographer to the Queen and H.R.H. Prince Albert. Punch (1850) described him in humorous cartographic terms, “If Mr. Wyld’s brain should be ever discovered (we will be bound he has a Map of it inside his hat), we should like to have a peep at it, for we have a suspicion that the two hemispheres must be printed, varnished, and glazed, exactly like a pair of globes.”
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