The International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez (Commission Internationale pour le percement de l'isthme de Suez) was the commission consisting of various European experts convened in 1855 by Ferdinand de Lesseps as instructed by the viceroy of Egypt Muhammad Sa'id in order to ascertain the feasibility of a canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and to evaluate the best alternative for such a canal. Preliminary events The idea of digging a canal through the isthmus of Suez was attracting widespread interest throughout Europe in the early 19th century. Napoleon's surveyors in his Campaign in Egypt had found a difference of some 9 m between the levels of the two seas. The surveys made by Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue in 1847 during an expedition of the Société d'Études du Canal de Suez were the first generally accepted evidence that there was in fact no such difference. During the same expedition, Alois Negrelli, the Austrian railroad pioneer, explored the bay of Pelusium at the northern end of the anticipated canal. However, due to the political disturbances of 1848, the ideas were not pursued any further. On 30 November 1854, De Lesseps obtained from Muhammad Sa'id the first concession for a Suez Canal and on Lesseps' request, a first draft of the canal was made by Linant-Bey and Mougel-Bey (Linant de Bellefonds and Eugène Mougel), two high level French engineers in the Egyptian canal administration. From the outset, De Lesseps' main concern was to put the canal project on a political basis as wide as possible. Thus, in his second, more detailed firman of 19 May 1855, the viceroy ordered to further elaborate the initial draft and to submit it to an international commission of experts for discussion and evaluation. Commission The Commission first convened in Paris on 30 October 1855. It consisted of Messrs. Frederik Willem Conrad Jr (The Hague) (Chairman), Captain Edward Harris (London), Benjamin Jaurès (Paris), Carl Lentze (Berlin), Jean-Pierre Lieussou (Paris), John Robinson McClean (London), Charles Manby (London), Cipriano Segundo Montesino (Madrid), Alois Negrelli (Vienna), Pietro Paleocapa (Turin), Louis Auguste Renaud (Paris), James Meadows Rendel (London), Charles Rigault de Genouilly (Paris). The members had already viewed the initial draft of Linant-Bey and Mougel-Bey and decided to investigate the circumstances on the spot in Egypt. In addition, a map of the bay of Pelusium was to be drawn up in order to complete the soundings made