Carte de visite Paul Frecker Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps was a French diplomat and friend of Sa'id Pasha, from whom he obtained a concession (20 November 1854) for the construction of the Suez Canal. Work on the monumental project began in 1859 and was finally completed in 1869. The success of venture owed a great deal to Lesseps's skill and tenacity. In 1879 he attempted to repeat his success by building a Panama Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but the project ended in disaster when he tried to construct it without locks.
