School of engineering was one of the most important Egyptian high schools, which was a nucleus to the Egyptian university after that according to the date of its foundation.
The modern education at Egypt started with the school of engineering that was established by Mohamed Ali at the castle in 1816 to train and prepare specialists in area. Then, the school of engineering at Boulak was established in 1834 to produce graduates of technicians who were specialists in working in civil and military projects alike. It continued to perform its mission until it was closed at early Mohamed Said's era in 1854 as well as other schools, then engineering study was restored in 1858 in two separate schools; one of which was dedicated to irrigation engineering at El-Qanater El-Khayriya, and the other was dedicated to architecture at the castle, then both of them were closed again in 1861.

In 1866, the school of irrigation and architecture was inaugurated at El-Zaafran Saray at Abbaseya, and then it was transferred to Mustafa Fadel Saray at Darb El-Gamaiz in 1867. Studying at that school was five years; one preparatory year and students specialized in the other two years either in irrigation or architecture. In 1892, the preparatory year was cancelled and did not return until 1930. Specializations of that school were cancelled in 1869, and the study was divided again to departments of irrigation and architecture in 1908. The school became known as (Khedival Engineering School) since 1950, then it was called (The Royal School of Engineering) in 1923. In 1916, a law was issued to divide the study into five departments; irrigation –architecture- municipalities- mechanics- power. Then, in 1925, those specializations were modified making the departments three only; civil department, architecture department, and mechanics department. The civil department was divided into branches of irrigation, municipalities, bridges, ports, area, and railways. The department of mechanics was divided into branches of mechanics and power.