Battle of the Pyramids, (July 21, 1798), military engagement in which Napoleon Bonaparte and his French troops captured Cairo. His victory was attributed to the implementation of his one significant tactical innovation, the massive divisional square.
(See “Napoleon’s Major Battles” Interactive Map)
Bonaparte, then a general and key military adviser for the French Revolutionary government (Directory), had proposed the invasion of Egypt in early 1798. Control of Egypt would provide France with a new source of income while simultaneously blocking the Red Sea, a major route of English access to India, thus disrupting a significant source of revenue for France’s main European opponent. The plan was quickly approved. Napoleon set sail for Egypt on May 19, 1798, with approximately 400 ships and 30,000 men. The invaders landed near Alexandria, on July 1, only narrowly missing British Adm. Horatio Nelson, who had been searching the area for them just days earlier. The French easily took possession of the weakly defended city the next day. Ostensibly an Ottoman territory, Egypt was then ruled by the Mamlūks, descendants of Muslim slave soldiers, who had infiltrated the Ottoman ranks through military advancement. They had left Alexandria, at that point sparsely populated, with only a paltry garrison, leaving the citizens to defend themselves.
On July 7 Napoleon headed south for Cairo, having installed a provisional government in Alexandria and instituted a propaganda program assuring Egyptians that his invasion would result in the eviction of the Mamlūks, whose oppressive rule they had endured for centuries. The column that he followed had been deployed four days earlier on the most direct route, through the desert. Another column, laden with the army’s baggage, was dispatched under Gen. Charles Dugua via a longer but less arduous path. The latter column was to rendezvous with a portion of the fleet on the Nile at Rosetta and from there proceed to Ramanieh, where they would rejoin Napoleon. While that column proceeded without issue, Bonaparte’s column was harassed by Bedouins and endured starvation; the men subsisted largely on grain cakes and watermelon. The conditions prompted a number of soldiers to commit suicide, and many succumbed to dehydration. Those who survived arrived at Ramanieh on July 10; the column under Dugua joined them a day later. On July 12 the reunited force began moving south along the west bank of the Nile in order to position themselves for an approaching attack by Mamlūk forces, which had been spotted by scouts. The next day the French troops encountered an army of roughly 15,000–18,000 (several thousand of whom were mounted) at the small town of Shubrā Khīt. Arrayed in five squares—one for each division—over 2 miles (3 km), the French defeated the disorganized opponent; some observers speculated that Bonaparte prolonged the battle to get a sense of what awaited him and his men at Cairo.
By July 20 the French forces had advanced to Umm Dīnār, 18 miles (29 km) north of Cairo. Scouts reported that an Egyptian force led by Murād Bey was massed on the west bank of the Nile at Embabeh, 6 miles (10 km) from Cairo and 15 miles (25 km) from the pyramids of Giza. (Though historical accounts place the size of the Egyptian force at close to 40,000 and Bonaparte himself reported an even larger opponent, modern analysis suggests that there were probably half that many or fewer. The perceived total was likely skewed by the presence of noncombatant attendants and servants.) Another Egyptian force, under Murād’s coruler, Ibrāhīm Bey, was camped on the east bank of the Nile and remained spectators to the battle. (Ibrāhīm blamed Murād for the invasion, the latter having mistreated European traders in the past.) At 2 am on July 21, the French began the 12-hour march to meet their foe, entrenched in front of Embabeh. Bonaparte’s claim that he rallied his forces with the exclamation “Soldiers! From atop these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you” is likely apocryphal; the pyramids to which he referred probably would not have been visible given the distance and the dust kicked up by the soldiers.
At approximately 3:30 pm the 6,000-man Mamlūk cavalry charged the 25,000-man French army. Napoleon had formed his forces into five squares as he had at Shubrā Khit. These “squares”—actually rectangles with a full brigade forming the front and back lines and half a brigade forming each side—could move or fight in any direction. Each was six ranks of infantry deep on all sides and protected cavalry and transport in their centres. The squares effectively repulsed the massed charges of the Mamlūk horsemen, shooting them as they approached and bayoneting any that breached the squares. As the centre held against the charge, the right and left flanks continued forward, forming a crescent shape and nearly surrounding the remaining Egyptian forces, a motley array of mercenaries and peasants. The French then stormed the Egyptian camp and dispersed their army, driving many into the Nile to drown. After the battle, additional large numbers of disorganized Egyptian infantry were killed, captured, or dispersed. Up to 6,000 Egyptians are thought to have perished in the conflict, which was over in a span of several hours. French casualties were limited to several hundred injured or dead.
The French troops proceeded to strip the corpses of the Mamlūk casualties of valuables, many of which were sewn into their clothing. Murād burned his fleet before fleeing to Upper Egypt with his remaining troops. The smoke from the ships threw Cairo into a panic, and many citizens were slaughtered and robbed by Bedouin mercenaries—ostensibly hired by the Mamlūks to protect them—as they fled the city with their belongings. Ibrāhīm escaped eastward along with the Turkish pasha who was the nominal leader of Egypt. By July 27 Napoleon had treated with the remaining Egyptian leaders and moved into Cairo. Less than a week later, however, his fleet would be decimated by Nelson in the Battle of the Nile.