Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Egypt in 1797, and placed the monastery under his protection, granting the monastery a document bearing his signature. He also provided for the renovation of the north wall of the fortress, which had been damaged by floods in 1798. The second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries proved to be more difficult for the monastery, as the collapse of empires and the emergence of modern states resulted in the loss of most the Sinai dependencies.