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A French-Norwegian archaeological team has discovered new Christian ruins in Egypt’s western desert, revealing monastic life in the region in the 5th century AD, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities said.
“The Franco-Norwegian mission discovered during its third excavation campaign at the Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz site in the Bahariya Oasis several buildings made of basalt, others carved from the bedrock and some made of mud bricks”, it said in a statement. on Saturday.
The complex is made up of “six sectors containing the ruins of three churches and monk cells,” whose “walls have graffiti and symbols with Coptic overtones,” said Osama Talaat, head of Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities at the ministry.
Mission chief Victor Ghica said “19 structures and a church carved out of the bedrock were discovered in 2020,” according to the statement.
The church walls were decorated with “religious inscriptions” and biblical passages in Greek, which reveal “the nature of monastic life in the region,” Ghica said.
It clearly showed that monks were present there since the 5th century AD, he added.
The remote site, located in the desert southwest of the capital Cairo, was occupied between the 4th and 8th centuries, with a probable peak of activity around the 5th and 6th centuries, according to the French Institute of Oriental Archeology, in charge of The mission .
Cairo has announced several major archaeological discoveries in recent months in hopes of stimulating tourism, a sector that has suffered multiple blows, from a 2011 uprising to the coronavirus pandemic.
