DIPLOMAT

Ferdinand de Lesseps

1805 - 1894

Photo of Ferdinand de Lesseps

Icon of person Ferdinand de Lesseps

Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps (French: [də lesɛps]; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between Europe and East Asia. He attempted to repeat this success with an effort to build a Panama Canal at sea level during the 1880s, but the project was devastated by epidemics of malaria and yellow fever in the area, as well as beset by financial problems, and the planned Lesseps Panama Canal was never completed. Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States, which solved the medical problems and changed the design to a non-sea level canal with locks. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ferdinand de Lesseps has received more than 968,638 page views. His biography is available in 55 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 54 in 2019). Ferdinand de Lesseps is the 10th most popular diplomat, the 399th most popular biography from France (down from 318th in 2019) and the 2nd most popular French Diplomat.

Ferdinand de Lesseps is most famous for his construction of the Suez Canal in Egypt, which opened in 1869.

Memorability Metrics

  • 970k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 69.42

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 55

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.63

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.31

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among DIPLOMATS

Among diplomats, Ferdinand de Lesseps ranks 10 out of 90. Before him are Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Gaius Marius, Dag Hammarskjöld, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Alexandra Kollontai, and Ban Ki-moon. After him are Raoul Wallenberg, Lucien Bonaparte, Madeleine Albright, Folke Bernadotte, John R. Bolton, and Chaim Herzog.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1805, Ferdinand de Lesseps ranks 7. Before him are Hans Christian Andersen, Joseph Smith, Giuseppe Mazzini, Alexis de Tocqueville, Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. After him are William Rowan Hamilton, Fanny Mendelssohn, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Maria Anna of Bavaria, and Marie d'Agoult. Among people deceased in 1894, Ferdinand de Lesseps ranks 5. Before him are Alexander III of Russia, Heinrich Hertz, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Hermann von Helmholtz. After him are Adolphe Sax, Lajos Kossuth, Gustave Caillebotte, Marie François Sadi Carnot, Anton Rubinstein, Francis II of the Two Sicilies, and Prince Philippe, Count of Paris.

Others Born in 1805

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Others Deceased in 1894

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In France

Among people born in France, Ferdinand de Lesseps ranks 399 out of 6,770. Before him are Paul Éluard (1895), James I of Aragon (1208), Gustave Moreau (1826), Dagobert I (611), Pierre Laval (1883), and Liliane Bettencourt (1922). After him are Camille Desmoulins (1760), Gaspard Monge (1746), Robert I of France (860), Pierre Bayle (1647), Patrice de MacMahon (1808), and Jean Lannes (1769).

Others born in France

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Among DIPLOMATS In France

Among diplomats born in France, Ferdinand de Lesseps ranks 2. Before him are Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754). After him are Lucien Bonaparte (1775), Édith Cresson (1934), and Jules Cambon (1845).

French born Diplomats

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