making the French with no escape route whatsoever. Some slight skirmishing took place in the evening on both banks of the Nile wherein the Mamelukes forced back a French sortie. On the 22nd preparations were made to besiege Cairo and its different forts by the allied forces. Belliard finding himself surrounded on all sides his communication with the interior part of the country entirely cut off and without hopes of relief sent a flag of truce to Hutchinson on 22 June requesting that he would agree to a conference. In this it was agreed for the French for the evacuation of Cairo and its dependencies. Aftermath The conference continued till the 28th when the surrender of Cairo by the French was signed and were allowed seventeen days for the final evacuation. By the terms of the treaty the French troops of which there were in effective 8,000 men with another 5,000 sick or convalescence were to be conveyed to a port of France. General John Moore then escorted them to the coast via Rosetta. On the evening of the 28th the British and the Ottoman's took possession of Giza and Cairo where the British and Turkish colours were conjointly hoisted. The last division of the French troops taken prisoners at Cairo and at other places were by 10 August sailed from the bay of Abu qir and Hutchinson having arrived from Cairo at his headquarters before Alexandria. Article 12 of the capitulation treaty made clear than any inhabitant of Egypt whatever their religion would be free to follow the French army. As a result, many Egyptian soldiers emigrated and formed the Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard. Immediate measures were taken to reduce the last strong hold of the French in Egypt and thus accomplish the ultimate objective of the expedition. Hutchinson, with Cairo out of the way, now began the final reduction of Alexandria – between 10 and 15 June the two divisions set off their march across the desert and the 30th arrived on the banks of the Nile. Soon they reached Alexandria and invested the place and after a siege between 17 August – 2 September 1801 the French again capitulated and with it the final collection of French troops in the middle east. Notes References External links Cairo French campaign in Egypt and Syria Cairo Cairo Conflicts in 1801 Siege of Cairo 1801 in Egypt Cairo 19th-century