Which canal links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across Panama?

The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across Panama.

The canal officially opened on 15 August 1914, creating a shorter maritime route between the two oceans. Ships no longer needed to sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.

Its locks raise vessels to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake at the centre of the canal route, and then lower them back to sea level. The system was an immense engineering project shaped by difficult terrain, disease and political change.

The United States controlled the canal zone for much of the twentieth century. Panama assumed full control on 31 December 1999, under agreements signed decades earlier.