The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the Nile Delta of Egypt from the 1st to the 3rd of August 1798. The battle was the climax of a naval campaign that had raged across the Mediterranean during the previous three months, as a large French convoy sailed from Toulon to Alexandria carrying an expeditionary force under General Napoleon Bonaparte. The British fleet was led in the battle by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson; they decisively defeated the French under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
The Destruction of L'Orient at the Battle of the Nile George Arnald, 1827, National Maritime Museum, in Greenwich, London, England
Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, Lemuel Francis Abbott, 1800, National Maritime Museum. Visible on his cocked hat is the aigrette presented by the Ottoman Sultan as a reward for the victory at the Nile
François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers artist unknown, Palace of Versailles
Battle of the Nile, Augt 1st 1798, Thomas Whitcombe, 1816, National Maritime Museum. The British fleet bears down on the French line.
Ottoman Egypt was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517. The Ottomans administered Egypt as a province (eyalet) of their empire. It remained formally an Ottoman province until 1914, though in practice it became increasingly autonomous during the 19th century and was under de facto British control from 1882.
Ottoman Cairene cruciform table carpet, mid 16th century
Alexandria in the late 18th century, by Luigi Mayer
Murad Bey by Dutertre in Description de l'Egypte, 1809
Battle of the Pyramids, Francois-Louis-Joseph Watteau, 1798–1799