Battle of the Pyramids

Battle of the Pyramids
Part of the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria during the War of the Second Coalition
The Battle of the Pyramids by Louis-François Lejeune
Date 21 July 1798 Location Embabeh, Egypt Ottoman Empire 30°5′N 31°12′E / 30.083°N 31.200°E / 30.083; 31.200 Result French victory
Belligerents
French Republic	Ottoman Empire Mamluks[1][2][3] Arab irregulars[1][2][3]
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon Bonaparte Louis Desaix Louis Bon Honoré Vial Jean Reynier Thomas-Alexandre Dumas	Murad Bey Ibrahim Bey Ayyub Bey †
Strength
25,000[a] 3,000 cavalry 17,000 infantry	21,000–35,000[a] 6,000+ cavalry 15,000–54,000 infantry[a]
Casualties and losses
289 killed or wounded[5]	10,000 killed or wounded[6][3]
class=notpageimage| Location within Lower Egypt Show map of Lower Egypt Battle of the Pyramids (Mediterranean) Show map of Mediterranean

War of the Second Coalition:
Egypt and Syria

480km
298miles

6

5

4

Jaffa

3

Cairo

2

Alexandria

1

Malta

   

  current battle

  Napoleon in command till 23 August 1799

The Battle of the Pyramids (French: Bataille des Pyramides), also known as the Battle of Embabeh (bataille d'Embabech), was a major engagement fought on 21 July 1798, during the French invasion of Egypt. The battle took place near the village of Imbaba, across the Nile River from Cairo, but was named by Napoleon after the Great Pyramid of Giza visible nearly nine miles away.

After capturing Alexandria and crossing the desert, the French army, led by General Napoleon Bonaparte, scored a decisive victory against the main army of the local Mamluk rulers, wiping out almost the entire Ottoman army located in Egypt. It was the first battle where Bonaparte personally devised and employed the divisional square tactic to great effect. The deployment of the French brigades into these massive rectangular formations repeatedly threw back multiple cavalry charges of the Mamluks.

The victory effectively sealed the French conquest of Egypt as Murad Bey salvaged the remnants of his army, chaotically fleeing to Upper Egypt. French casualties amounted to roughly 300, but Ottoman and Mamluk casualties soared to approximately 10,000. Napoleon entered Cairo after the battle and created a new local administration under his supervision. The campaign formed part of a great global rivalry between France and Britain; the French objective was to establish a base from which to continue its campaign against British India. After the French fleet was destroyed by Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile, Bonaparte marched through the Levant until his advance was stalled by Anglo-Turkish forces at Acre.^[7]

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