42nd Highlanders in front of the Sphinx at Giza, Egypt, 1882

After Britain's defeat of Egypt in 1882, jubilant Highlanders posed on the Sphinx (below), a symbol of British success in protecting the Suez route to India from the threat of Egyptian nationalist revolt. Nationalist sentiment was not entirely suppressed, and only in 1956 were the last remnants of imperial authority over the Suez canal humiliatingly swept away by Egypt's greatest nationalist - Gamal Abdel Nasser. Original Image can be seen at National Army Museum