A French-Norwegian archeology team has discovered new Christian ruins in Egypt’s Western Desert, revealing monastic life in the area in the fifth century CE, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said on Saturday.
“The French-Norwegian mission during its third excavation operation at the Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz site in the Bahariya Oasis discovered a number of basalt-based buildings, some carved in the ground and some made of mud bricks,” he said in a statement.
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Ancient Christian dating back to the 5th century CE, found on the site of Tal Ganoub Qasr Al-Ajouz
(Photo: AFP)
The building is made up of “six divisions containing the ruins of three churches and monk’s cells”, which have “graffiti walls and symbols with Coptic controversy”, said Osama Talaat, head of Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities at the ministry.
The head of the mission, Victor Ghica, said that “19 structures and churches carved into the bedrock” were found in 2020, according to the report.
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An ancient Christian inscription on a fragment of clay found on the site of Tal Ganoub Qasr Al-Ajouz
(Photo: AFP)
The church walls were decorated with “religious writings” and Bible passages in Greek, reflecting “the nature of monastic life in the area,” Ghica said.
It clearly showed the presence of monks from the fifth century CE, he said.
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Ancient Greek rock inscription in Greek, found on the site of Tal Ganoub Qasr Al-Ajouz
(Photo: AFP)
The remote site, located in the desert southwest of the capital Cairo, was occupied from the fourth to the eighth century, with activity appearing around the fifth and sixth centuries, according to an Institute French Oriental Archeology, which was in charge of the mission. .
Cairo has announced a number of key archaeological discoveries in recent months in hopes of boosting tourism, a region that has suffered several blows – from a 2011 revolution to the coronavirus pandemic.