1-155-892 - Art Media/Heritage Images

Napoleon and General Kleber on the expedition to Egypt, 1798, (c1835). The French attempted to invade and expel the ruling Mamelukes in the Battle of the Pyramids. More than 5000 of the Mameluke force were killed or wounded, while Bonaparte's Army of the Orient lost 300 men. The Pyramids won Lower Egypt for France. General Jean-Baptiste Kleber was given the honour of taking command of all French forces when Bonaparte returned to France. Kleber held together his isolated troops in the face of an increasingly hostile native population and a large Ottoman army. He won a key action at Heliopolis and retook Cairo but, when on the verge of stabilising the situation, was assassinated by a knife-wielding fanatic.