[conspire] Happy Lupercalia

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:59:12 -0800, Rick Moen wrote:

>> Then again, those same leaky memories suggest to me that Sinai
>> lies not on the tectonic plate of Asia nor of Africa, but on its own, and
>> that the year 1952 passed in its entirety before the canal was even there.
> 
> The modern Canal is Victorian, having been built between 1858 and 1869
> by a French/British company headed by the ill-starred Ferdinand de
> Lessups.  A different, east/west sea-level canal is believed to have
> existed in the 13th century BC, connecting the Nile with the Red Sea.
> 
> As to tectonics, Sinai shares the African Plate with the rest of Africa; 
> the Arabian Plate adjoins it to the north and east.  The much larger
> Eurasian Plate, adjoining that to the northwest, north, and northeast,
> doesn't begin until roughly Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus.

Hence the "then again" part. Perhaps I should have more strongly
emphasized the word "leaky."