Egypt Unearths 4th-Century Byzantine City and 18 Tombs in Western Desert
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 4
Egypt Unearths 4th-Century Byzantine City and 18 Tombs in Western Desert
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 4
Summary
A fourth-century Byzantine settlement in Dakhla Oasis has yielded a basilica-style church, watchtowers, houses, ovens, kitchens and a fortified structure, offering a rare intact urban layout in Egypt’s western desert.
About 200 inscribed pottery ostraca, bronze coins and gold coins from Constantius II’s reign point to commercial activity, correspondence and daily life when Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire.
At Marina el-Alamein, archaeologists also found 18 tombs—11 rock-cut and seven limestone-built—bringing the site’s total to 48 and adding pottery, lamps, altars and basins.
A 2.5-metre granite sarcophagus with skeletal remains, a plaster sphinx fragment and four “golden tongue” mouth pieces deepen evidence of funerary practices at the coastal site near Alexandria.
The Dakhla oasis discovery could strengthen the case for a UNESCO World Heritage listing, with the area already on the agency’s tentative list.
As Egypt unearths more treasures for tourism, is it risking the very heritage it seeks to promote?
With a goal of 30 million tourists, can remote desert finds truly compete with the pyramids for visitor attention?
What secrets do golden tongues and ancient receipts reveal about daily life in Roman and Byzantine Egypt?
Archaeological Breakthrough at Sheikh Al-Arab Hammam (2025): How a Lost City and Necropolis Are Transforming Egypt’s Tourism and Local Economy
Overview
In late 2025 and early 2026, a joint Egyptian–French archaeological mission, with key involvement from Ain Shams University, uncovered a remarkable site near Al-Arki village in Qena Governorate, Upper Egypt. Located at Farshut, about 566 km south of Cairo, the discovery revealed an 18th-century mudbrick residential city linked to the Sheikh Al-Arab Hammam citadel, as well as a Byzantine-era Coptic necropolis. This multi-layered site provides rare insights into historical settlement patterns and daily life, highlighting the region’s continuous occupation and the evolving relationship between its military, civilian, and religious communities.