Wow, in a list of astoundingly bad ideas, cutting a path for large container ships through a pristine freshwater lake will probably rank at the top.

I love pristine lakes too but we should look at the cost/benefit before deciding.

A pristine lake doesn’t have infinite value, right?

It depends on who's point of view we're evaluating it from. I haven't looked, but suppose there is an endangered species which call the lake home, perhaps that is the only place they inhabit. Putting them one oil spill away from existence.

So, what's the going rate for pristine lakes nowadays?

It’s actually really high since you’d be ruining the enjoyment of the lake for all future generations plus the fact that you can’t predict how much enjoyment they would get from it.

But if there were enough benefits it could still be worth it. Brining 50k people out of poverty for example? Reducing trucking pollution by a large amount.

Best I can do is about tree fiddy.

you could cut across the egypt/israel border from the gulf of aqaba.

It would be something like ten times the length of Suez, and I think there are mountains in the middle, but it would be pretty cool! :)

It's been proposed before! https://www.jpost.com/opinion/an-israeli-suez-canal-393225

It would be less than 3x the length, not 10x. The mountains are a problem; it could go around but would still need to dig a lot. And it doesn't seem feasible politically right now, but it could be a really cool project.

(If it was built, then a side-canal to irrigate the Dead Sea would be a relatively cheap value-add.)

The Norwegians are already planning a tunnel for boats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stad_Ship_Tunnel

"In March 2021, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications gave approval for preparations to begin, with the Norwegian Coastal Administration expecting construction to begin in 2022."

Norway, where else! They seem to have an entirely different relation to tunneling than the rest of humanity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drammen_Spiral

And there are canal tunnels already - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_tunnel