The mission unearthed “several buildings made of basalt, others carved into the bedrock and some made of mud bricks”
Cairo has announced several major new archaeological discoveries in recent months with the hopes of spurring tourism
The discovery comes in the mission’s third season of drilling and exploration work in the region.
The mission unveiled 19 rooms carved into the rock, as well as a well-preserved church. The walls bore writing in yellow ink, including texts from the Bible in Greek, reflecting the nature of monastic life in this region.
The inscriptions indicate that monks have been settled in this area since the fifth century.
Among the discoveries were a church and its dining hall, fountains, a number of rooms and many pieces of ostraca, which are pottery sherds bearing Greek writing dating back to the fifth and sixth centuries.
Egypt seeks to promote its ancient heritage through these discoveries in order to revive the tourism sector, which has suffered many successive blows due to political instability in the country since the overthrow of the late President Hosni Mubarak a decade ago.
