Pale, sand-coloured, flat-roofed buildings and laneways lead to the wide, beachfront promenade.

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Fresh from constructing a sea-level canal through the flat Egyptian sand, de Lesseps was determined, without having set foot in Panama and after only the vaguest of topographical studies, that his project through the mountainous central American isthmus would also be a sea-level canal, requiring no locks to cope with changes in altitude.

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What should be a shallow, marshy environment, complete with a complex set of channels, islands and sand bars is becoming a flat, scoured bay subject to the full force of the Adriatic.

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As the last shards of sunshine danced on the sand, we got to Big Flat at 8 p.m.

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Their large eyes would have helped them to see in the low light, and their flat feet would have been just as useful for walking on snow as they are on sand.

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