In the 1910s, engineers proposed cutting a canal from the Mediterranean into Egypt's Qattara Depression to flood a below-sea-level desert basin and generate endless hydropower

In the 1910s, engineers proposed digging a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Qattara Depression in northwestern Egypt, flooding the below-sea-level basin to generate hydroelectric power. The plan was studied intermittently for more than a century before Egypt scrapped it this year.

According to a 1933 summary in Nature of surveyor John Ball's work, the Qattara Depression has an average floor depth of about 60 meters (200 feet) below sea level, with a maximum depth of roughly 133 meters. The basin spans an estimated 20,000 square kilometers (about 7,700 square miles). Since no rivers flow into it, the basin remains dry.

How the plan was supposed to work
Seawater would travel from the coast through a tunnel or canal, dropping down into the depression and spinning turbines as it went. Once inside the hot desert basin, the water would likely evaporate quickly, drawing in more seawater behind it. That was the part that made the idea attractive: it could generate power almost continuously. But keeping the water level steady meant constantly balancing incoming seawater against evaporation, and over time, the basin would slowly fill with the salt left behind.

German geographer Albrecht Penck first suggested using the depression to generate power around 1912. In 1927, John Ball of the Survey of Egypt mapped the region and produced the first real estimates of how much power it could generate.

A nuclear shortcut that never happened
During the 1960s and 1970s, German engineer Friedrich Bassler researched the Qattara project for the Egyptian government. In a 1989 study by Cairo University engineer A.H.A. Baghdadi, published in the journal Energy Sources, Bassler's team repeatedly encountered the same obstacle: the scheme could produce electricity, but building the required 55 to 100-kilometer-long canal through a solid desert would be too costly.

The engineers offered an alternative solution: carrying out 213 underground nuclear explosions to build the canal instead of using mechanical tools. It could be considered part of the "Atoms for Peace" initiative, which Eisenhower promoted to encourage peaceful uses of nuclear power. Three main concerns prevented Egypt from agreeing on the project. First of all, there was a danger of radioactive fallout due to nuclear explosions. Secondly, people living near the place where the canal was to be built had to be evacuated. And finally, the shock waves could reach the Red Sea Rift, located approximately 280 miles away.

Why did Egypt cancel the project in 2026
The idea kept resurfacing over the decades. Egypt signed a new feasibility study agreement in 2023, and a government committee had been reviewing the plan since 2016. This year, that review came to a close. According to Ahram Online's reporting, Egypt's cabinet announced in May 2026 that the project was not economically viable. Officials pointed to risks including groundwater contamination, increased soil salinity, and potential damage to nearby oases such as Siwa. They also noted that parts of the depression now overlap with active oil and gas operations in Egypt's Western Desert, which would need to be relocated if the area were flooded. Solar power and wind power, officials said, are now cheaper and more practical.

What this means today
The Qattara Depression story shows how a century-old renewable energy idea can eventually be overtaken by cheaper, more efficient technology. A hundred years ago, flooding the desert with seawater looked like a smart way to generate power. Today, solar panels can do the job in that same desert without moving a drop of seawater.