the first railway proposal in egypt came about when pasha muhammad ali asked the british engineer t.h. galloway to design a railway in 1834. instructions to make it followed in 1836. materials were delivered but little real construction followed. no ottoman "firwan" (permission) was issued and the french objected. progress was really made when in 1849 muhammad ali died, and in 1851 his grandson abbas i of egypt contracted robert stephenson to build egypt's first standard gauge railway. the first section, between alexandria on the mediterranean coast and kafr el-zayyat on the rosetta branch of the nile was opened in 1854. this was the first railway in the ottoman empire as well as africa and the middle east. in the same year abbas died and was succeeded by sa'id pasha, in whose reign the section between kafr el-zayyat and cairo was completed in 1856 followed by an extension from cairo to suez in 1858. this completed the first modern transport link between the mediterranean and the indian ocean, as ferdinand de lesseps did not complete the suez canal until 1869.