venice, canal
The Grand Canal in Venice is one of the most famous waterways Image Credit: Stock photo/Pixabay

Earlier this month, Egypt announced plans to widen and deepen part of the Suez Canal where a container ship ran aground and blocked the busy waterway.

While the canal is one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes, which other canals can you name?

Click start to play today’s crossword and test your knowledge.

The Suez Canal has a deep connection with the earliest canals ever made. These waterways have been constructed for centuries, with the first one built purely for water transport by the Iranian emperor Darius I in around 520 BC. He linked the Nile with the Red Sea – a forerunner of the modern-day Suez Canal.

Suez
A giant container ship blocked the Suez Canal earlier this month, throwing the shipping industry into a state of crisis Image Credit: Muhammad Nahas/Gulf News

The Chinese were also master builders and had already linked their major rivers with a series of canals by the third century BC.

Can you name the country in which the ‘Great Man-Made River’, the world’s largest irrigation project, supplies 70 per cent of fresh water to citizens (6-Across)? Or provide the Arabic word for ‘channel’ (23-Across)?

Play today’s crossword and tell us how it goes at games@gulfnews.com.