Named after the rue des Pyramides, which recalls the Battle of the Pyramids.
On 21 July 1798, during the Egyptian campaign, General Bonaparte's army defeated the Mamluks of Murad Bey near Cairo. For propaganda, Bonaparte called it the Battle of the Pyramids, a grander name than ‘battle of Cairo’: the fighting took place at Embabeh, from where the pyramids could merely be seen. The southern part of the street was cut through in 1801.