India, July 6 -- Egypt has formally opened what officials describe as the world's largest military command complex, a sprawling desert installation east of Cairo that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi says embodies "the will of a nation that knows nothing of the impossible." The inauguration, held on Saturday, saw Sisi appear publicly in military uniform for the first time in more than a decade, arriving at the ceremony under the escort of attack helicopters, according to the German press agency dpa.

Known as the Octagon, the complex consists of eight buildings, each with an eight-sided floor plan, spread across roughly 90 square kilometres, an area comparable to the Portuguese capital Lisbon, dpa reported. The scale of the project means it...