I know that it was a very shortlived invasion, but it still seems to be a pretty famous event and one held up as very significant to the Middle East's history. How is it so important if Napoleon was gone within two years?
Essentially every primary source document on Egypt can be traced back to Napoleon's invasion. Not through discovery, but through understanding. French soldiers reinforcing the defenses of Fort Julien in the Nile delta were the ones to discover the Rosetta Stone, which was the key to understanding hieroglyphics. It, like most everything else discovered by the French at the time, was soon taken by the British, but the value of the discovery for our understanding of Egyptian history cannot be overstated.