Dos & don’ts

Bring your own equipment. All of Napoleon’s scientific instruments were on his ship Le Patriote, which hit rocks off the Alexandria coast and sank 4 July 1798.

Form a square when attacked. French infantry are able to hold off repeated cavalry charges using a square formation to protect their cannons and supplies.

Bring flea powder. Bubonic plague is ravaging the French troops in the city of Jaffa and the disease is transmitted by flea bites.

Respect Islam. Napoleon claims he worships Allah “more than the Mamelukes do” but this isn’t really fooling anybody — least of all Murad Bey.

Be fooled by mirages. The soldiers are often tricked by illusions of distant lakes but Napoleon’s mathematician, Gaspard Monge, has shown that they are actually caused by refraction.

Share French maps. The charts created on this expedition are so accurate that the French government has classified them as state secrets.

Panic when Napoleon leaves. Although the Little Corporal abandoned Egypt in favour of seizing power in France in 1799, the British won’t recapture Egypt until 1801.

Stand too close to General Kléber. On 14 June 1800, the French commander will be stabbed to death by a Syrian student, and his chief engineer also wounded.