Egypt’s president aspires to build a new administrative capital in the desert. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears undeterred by the likely costs, the consequences for Cairo’s 19m residents, or the city’s 1,000-year history. He might draw some useful lessons, though, from countries that have tried similar experiments — from Australia, Brazil or Turkey to, more recently, Kazakhstan and Myanmar.

There can be good reasons to attempt a transplant of government. When Australia opted to build its capital on the site of Canberra, the reasons included security from naval attack, climate and, above all, a wish to prevent either Sydney or Melbourne dominating the new federation. Brasília was founded with similar aims of sharing resources and influence across a large country. It was also planned on utopian principles, from the aeroplane shaped design declaring Brazil to be modern and global, to the residential blocks intended to promote social equality.

Another honourable example is Ankara, whose elevation from provincial backwater to capital of the Turkish republic was driven by military necessity. Istanbul was under allied occupation. Ankara became an embodiment of Ataturk’s secular, westward-facing republic — an exercise in urban planning with the great man’s mausoleum more visible than the minarets.