Battle of the Pyramids
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The Battle of the Pyramids was a battle fought on July 21, 1798 between the French army in Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte and local Mamluk forces, and the battle where Bonaparte put into use his one significant contribution to tactics, the massive divisional square.
In July of 1798, Napoleon was marching from Alexandria toward Cairo after invading and capturing the former. He met two forces of the ruling Mamluks 15 kilometers from the Pyramids, and only 4 miles from Cairo. The Mamluk forces were commanded by Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey and had a powerful and highly developed cavalry. The Mamluk army, though numerous, was far more primitively equipped than the French, and their forces were split by the Nile, with Murad entrenched in Embabeh (modern spelling:Imbaba) and Ibrahim in the open.
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Napoleon realized that the only Egyptian troops of any worth on the battlefield were their cavalry. He had little cavalry of his own and was outnumbered by a factor of 2 or 3 to 1. He was thus forced to go on the defensive, and organized his army into hollow "squares" with artillery, cavalry and baggage at the center of each square, and so dispersed sustained charges of Mameluke cavalry with supporting artillery fire. He then stormed the Egyptian camp in the village of Embebeh, routing the disorganized Egyptian infantry, scattering their army.
The battle won Cairo and Lower Egypt for France. Upon hearing news of the defeat of their legendary cavalry, the waiting Mamluk armies in Cairo dispersed to Syria to reorganize. The Battle also signalled the final chapter of 700 years of Mamluk rule in Egypt. Despite this auspicious beginning, Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory in the Battle of the Nile 10 days later squashed Bonaparte's hopes for a glorious conquest of the Middle East.