![]() ![]() Napoleon's soldiers, while digging to reinforce a fortress wall in 1799, made an accidental discovery in the Nile Delta - the Rosetta Stone.Īfter less than a year in exile, Napoleon sailed from Elba with 1,000 supporters and landed on the French mainland, where he was met by exultant crowds. The Egyptian campaign wasn't a total wash, though. Napoleon saw an opening for his triumphant return, so he abandoned his troops in Egypt and secretly made for France. But by 1798, morale was low and a civil war was raging back home. He took on the Turks in Syria and bombarded the centuries-old walls at the ancient city of Acre. ![]() Stranded in Egypt, Napoleon decided to pick more fights with the locals. But while Napoleon was daydreaming of conquest - "I saw myself founding a new religion," he later wrote, "marching into Asia riding an elephant, a turban on my head, and in my hand the new Koran" - the British struck back, destroying the French fleet docked in the Mediterranean. The French, following Napoleon's ingenious battlefield strategies, crushed the saber-wielding Mamelukes and took Cairo. ![]() "Soldiers," Napoleon shouted to his troops, "from the height of these pyramids, 40 centuries look down upon you." ![]()
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