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For security reasons, the ceremonies, which took place at midday Saturday, were held far from the normally tumultuous streets of the great city. As it was, police had to fire into the air to disperse a crowd of 2,000 people who had merely wanted to attend the service. Sadat's casket, draped in the Egyptian flag, was flown by helicopter from the mosque of the hospital to a sports stadium in Nasr City, then carried on a horse-drawn caisson for the final 800 yards to the very reviewing stand where Sadat had been mortally wounded four days earlier. Seated in the same row in which he had fallen, his wife and family received condolences from the mourners before the casket was moved to a hastily constructed tomb in front of the Unknown Soldier pyramid.
As the Sadat family stood beside the tomb, pallbearers carried the coffin to its grave. After final prayers from the Koran, Sadat's Republican Guard presented arms. There was a roll of drums, and a single bugle sounded taps. It was over.
Sadat had once said that he hoped to be buried on Mount Sinai, as a symbol of the peace he had brought to Egypt. On other occasions he spoke of being laid to rest at Mit Abu el Kom. But in the end, the government decided the burial should take place at a public site near the capital. Mubarak explained: "He was a statesman, one of the biggest in the world.
How could you put him in a very small place?" —By William E. Smith. Reported by Robert C Wurmstedt and Wilton Wynn/Cairo, with other bureaus