The Championships are due to be held at the Pegasus Sports Club, contained within the Dreamland development and near to the Pyramids of Giza.

It will mark the 20th anniversary of the first combined male and female World Championships in Sofia in 1997.

Temperatures are forecast to peak in the Egyptian capital at 35-37C, providing an intense test of the endurance and stamina of the 169 athletes from 29 countries due to compete.

There are scheduled to be five medal events, with the men's relay starting things off tomorrow.

That will be followed on Wednesday (August 23) by the women's relay.

Qualifying for the men and women's individual events will be held on Thursday and Friday (August 24 and 25) with the respective finals scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday (August 26 and 27).

A mixed relay will bring the curtain down on the Championships on August 28.

Eurosport, which claims to have reach of 154 million homes, will televise the Championships across Europe and beyond, as a result of a new deal struck with UIPM earlier this year.

The pan-European channel has already televised the 2017 UIPM World Cup Final in Vilnius in Lithuania, where UIPM's high-quality feed was provided live coverage to multiple television networks.

For the World Championships, 11 networks have signed up to broadcast the live show. 

Another 18 networks are expected to televise the one-hour highlights package.

As with all UIPM World Cup events, a live stream of the laser-run will also be available at UIPM TV. 

The Olympic Channel is another place where online viewers can see the action as it happens.

The defending champions from last year's event in Moscow will face stiff challenges to retain their title.

France's Valentin Belaud will be up against Russia's and Alexander Lesun and Ukraine's Pavlo Tymoshchenko, the Olympic gold and silver medallists at Rio 2016. 

Lesun has also won the World Championships twice - at Rome in 2012 and Warsaw in 2014 - while Tymoshchenko took the title at Berlin in 2015.

Hungary's Sarolta Kovács faces renewed competition from Lithuania's Laura Asadauskaitė and Germany's Lena Schoeneborn, the Olympic gold medallists at London 2012 and Beijing 2008 respectively.

Asadauskaitė also won the world title at Kaoshiung in Taiwan in 2013, while Schoeneborn took the title in Berlin two years ago. 

"This is the first time UIPM's flagship senior competition has been staged in Africa and the local organisers in Egypt have worked hard for many years and proved their ability to host high-class modern pentathlon competitions," said UIPM President Klaus Schormann

"The modern pentathlon is the ultimate test of moral as well as physical qualities, and this year the physical examination will be even more demanding due to the high temperatures in Cairo, although most of our experienced pentathletes have competed here and in other hot locations before.

"It is great news that pentathlon fans around the world will be able to watch the action on so many television and online channels, including Eurosport, and UIPM is proud to see the World Championships develop as a great competition for all kinds of spectators.

"It is 20 years since the UIPM World Championships became a joint male and female competition and we now have an annual highlight of the international sporting calendar which goes from strength to strength."