Though brief, Napoleon's occupation of Egypt marks a key moment in European relations with Egypt. Previous invasions from Europe had been beaten back, if not easily then at least effectively. Not so this time. At the Battle of the Pyramids (named by the French more for effect than geographic accuracy -- the pyramids of Giza were only distantly visible from the site of the actual clash) in July 1798, Napoleon's infantry made hamburger of the Mamluke cavalry, killing perhaps 3,000 of them (along with a similar number of infantry) for a reported loss of 29 French soldiers.
Despite this crushing tactical triumph, the strategic situation was about to get dramatically worse. Unfortunately for Napoleon, a British fleet under Horatio Nelson was already stalking the naval forces that he had left near Alexandria to guarantee his supply lines. Ten days later, the French boats were found and destroyed (and have only recently been rediscovered and opened as a recreational dive site) in what has become known as the Battle of the Nile. So, doomed from the get-go, Napoleon's occupation was brief, but its significance went beyond the dramatic proof of the superiority of European arms and tactics.
Along with his army, Napoleon imported a team of more than 150 civilian scholars, as well as around 2,000 engravers and artists. They spent their time cataloguing everything that they could get their hands and eyes on. Eventually they were able to produce the Description of Egypt, a mammoth (some of the volumes are nearly 1m/3 1/3-ft. squares) 20- or 37-volume (depending on the edition) set of plates and texts on just about everything in Egypt, including some dramatically large monuments and a good number of Pharoanic artifacts decorated with a mixture of pictorial symbols that remained undecipherable until the Rosetta Stone -- also unearthed by the French -- was translated 30 years later. Apart from their academic value, the illustrations of massive ruined temples would define Egypt for many decades in the European mind as the seat of a mysterious and powerful lost civilization.
Sensing the inevitability of embarrassing failure, Napoleon got out of Egypt in 1799, leaving his army to struggle against a combination of Ottoman and British forces. Decimated by disease and conflict, the remnants of the army he left behind were shipped back to France 2 years later.
