Seeing as the Panama Canal as been nominated, i feel obliged to nominate its older cousin: the Suez Canal

Full name of site: Suez Canal
Country: Egypt
Short description of site (also include multiple locations if applicable): Constructed between 1859 and 1869, the Suez Canal is a massive canal that connects the red sea with the Mediterranean. When the canal was opened, it greatly lessened travel time between Europe and Asia, allowing more trade and exchange of information. The Canal itself was a great engineering feet, and paved the way for canals of similar proportions.
Criteria (cultural, natural, mixed): I, IV
Outstanding universal value / comparative analysis: although the length and width of the Suez Canal has been eclipsed by other canals, the Suez canal has great significance. as the first Canal to be so large, it influenced the world, and can be considered responsible for the belief that other canals, such as the panama canal, were possible.

But how much of what is left of the Suez Canal is "original"?- the entire canal has been widened/deepened, there are no locks or other infrastrusture. I remember a rather nice "Art Deco" hotel in Suez which was redolent of an earlier era of travel and haven't been to Port Said - but is there anything left?

The Panama Canal has a lot of original/early administrative buildigns and living accommodation, Gatun lake/dams which permitted the entire design, the Gaillard Cut (a world class engineering achievement just on tis own) and the original locks (since supplemented by additional ones).

There is I guess a potential problem in linking inscription too much to the existence of original features since these may well in future need to be replaced by newer technology. As I understand it the "Panama Canal Expansion Project" plans to raise the height of Gatun lake - so will probably destroy the existing dams and will add addditonal channels/locks but keep the current ones.

The reality is of course that no Panamanian government would want to subject the Canal to the sort of preservation/conservation measures currently required to obtain/maintian inscription - but we are not, as I understand it, insisting on these "rules" which currently preclude worthwhile heritage getting inscribed because of their often inappropriate requirements -just the "universal value criteria??