They were primarily intended to facilitate commercial and trading interests that needed to communicate between France and points east.
In 1857, the regular postage stamps of France were distributed for use at the French Consular Post Offices in Egypt.
The use of the generally issued stamps of France stopped in 1898 and in 1899, stamps were officially overprinted for the post offices at Alexandria and Port Said (the post offices at Suez and Cairo closed prior to this change).
The first issue appeared in 1899; it consisted of the post office name (as described above) overprinted on the current "Type Sage" stamps, a total of 15 values ranging from one centime to five francs.
A new round of surcharges in 1925 added black bars to obscure the French currency values.