Editing Contour canal

{{Short description|Canal which follows the contour of land}}
A '''contour canal''' is an artificially-dug navigable [[canal]] which closely follows the [[contour line]] of the land it traverses, in order to avoid costly engineering works such as:

* Digging a [[Cut (earthworks)|cutting]] or [[tunnel]] through higher ground;
* Building an [[Embankment (earthworks)|embankment]] or [[Aqueduct (bridge)|aqueduct]] over lower ground, or;
* Constructing a [[canal lock]] (or series of locks) to change the level of the canal.

Because of this, these canals are characterised by their meandering course.

In the [[United Kingdom]], many of the canals built in the period from 1770 to 1800 were contour canals - for example, the [[Thames & Severn Canal]] completed in 1789, and the [[Oxford Canal]] completed in 1790. Later canals tended to be much straighter and more direct - a good example is the [[Shropshire Union Canal]] engineered by [[Thomas Telford]].

==See also== 
*[[Canals of the United Kingdom]]
*[[Grand Contour Canal]] - proposed, but never built
*[[Lingqu Canal]] - the oldest contour canal in the world

==Notes==
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==References==
*Day, Lance and Ian McNeil. (1996). ''Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology''. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-06042-7}}.

[[Category:Canals]]