Important facts on Egypt’s Scientific Institute on its establishing anniversary

CAIRO – 22 August 2022: The Institut d'Égypte or the Egyptian Scientific Institute is considered one of the oldest and greatest scientific institutions.

It was built by Napoleon Bonaparte on August, 22, 1798. Its headquarters was initially located in the house of one of the Mamluks’ gates in Cairo, then it was transferred to Alexandria in 1859 and was named the Egyptian Scientific Institute, before returning back to Cairo in 1880.

The Egyptian Scientific Institute is the second oldest scientific institution in Egypt after Al-Azhar. The complex includes books dating back to 1750, and contains more than 200,000 rare books and manuscripts. The complex was built by following the model of the French Scientific Complex. 

Upon its establishment, the Egyptian Scientific Institute had 12 members. 

The complex houses 23,000 books and 17,000 volumes of mother books, including an 1842 German atlas on Ethiopia and Egypt, with drawings of pharaonic artifacts.

The Egyptian Scientific Institute was burnt down in 2011 during the events of the January uprising. The burning of the complex caused the destruction of most of its contents. The complex was restored to its original state in 2012.

The Egyptian Scientific Institute was chaired by a number of prominent writers, the most famous of which are Lotfi el-Sayed, Taha Hussein,  and Ali Mostafa Mosharafa.

Its library includes nearly 40,000 books, most notably “The Description of Egypt”.