Maadi from the Egyptian army, future president Anwar Sadat. Following the 1952 Revolution, after which the British colonial occupation ended, and the 1956 Suez Crisis, or Tripartite Aggression, in which Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt to regain control of the Suez Canal, British and French expatriates living in Maadi and elsewhere were forced to leave Egypt. As a result, some of their institutions, such as St.John's Anglican Church, were taken over and run temporarily by other nationalities. The oldest area in Maadi is El Sarayat, composed mostly of villas and low rise buildings. It is the most affluent part of
Suez Crisis the country as well as the canal proper, and its finances and operations. The 1888 Convention of Constantinople declared the canal a neutral zone under British protection. In ratifying it, the Ottoman Empire agreed to permit international shipping to pass freely through the canal, in time of war and peace. The Convention came into force in 1904, the same year as the "Entente cordiale" between Britain and France. Despite this convention, the strategic importance of the Suez Canal and its control were proven during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, after Japan and Britain entered into a separate bilateral agreement. Following