A military funeral has been held for former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, bestowing the state's final rehabilitation on the man who ruled for 30 years until he was ousted in disgrace in 2011.
Horses drew Mubarak's coffin, draped in the Egyptian flag, at a mosque complex on Wednesday as canons fired into the air.
The coffin was followed by a procession led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as Mubarak's two sons Alaa and Gamal.
The funeral march was attended by key political figures from Mubarak's years in power, some of whom had been scarcely seen in public since he was removed from office.
Sisi stayed for the duration of the procession, offering condolences to Alaa, Gamal and Mubarak's wife Suzanne before his departure.
Mubarak died on Tuesday in intensive care weeks after undergoing surgery, leaving Egyptians divided over the legacy of his era, marked by stagnation and repression but recalled by some as more stable than the chaos that followed.
The stately funeral was a contrast from the rejoicing on the streets in 2011 when he was swept out of power as an early victim of the Arab Spring revolutions across the region.
Mubarak spent many of the years after he was ousted moving between jail and military hospitals before being freed in 2017 under Sisi, who has jailed Islamist and liberal opponents in the name of stability.
Egypt's presidency and armed forces mourned the former air force officer as a hero for his role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The presidency declared three days of national mourning.
Mubarak's coffin was airlifted to the family burial compound from the funeral at Field Marshall Tantawi mosque - named for Mubarak's defence minister of 20 years, who presided over an abortive transition to democracy after Mubarak resigned.
Dozens of Mubarak supporters, some from his home village Kafr al-Meselha in the Nile Delta, gathered outside the mosque.
A small crowd also gathered outside of his burial site in the upscale neighbourhood of Heliopolis, where supporters chanted: "Alaa, tell your father that the 100 million are saying goodbye".
Cairo woman Zeenat Touhami, 35, said she was happy that Mubarak's "pride was restored" after his fall, and that the state was showing appreciation to him after his death.
"This is the history of 30 years, the farewell of 30 years," she said.
Human rights activist Mohamed Zaree, said autocracy and economic hardship were now worse under Sisi than under Mubarak.
Australian Associated Press
