Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a large Byzantine-era settlement in the Dachlos oasis. Here they found houses with vaulted roofs, bread ovens, kitchens, and stone mills, providing a rare opportunity to glimpse daily life in the 4th century.
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They also found about 200 pottery shards with inscriptions recording commercial transactions, letters, and a collection of coins.
The carefully planned settlement features wide north-south streets intersected by east-west roads, forming public squares, with its edges guarded by two watchtowers and a heavily fortified building.
At its center stands a basilica-type church, overlooking one of the main city streets from above.
According to experts, the discovery provides one of the clearest views to date of life in remote Egyptian oases during the Byzantine Empire.
The city, located in the western New Valley province of Egypt in the Western Desert, is included in the UNESCO Tentative List – just one step away from being added to the agency’s World Heritage List.
Mahmoud Massoud, General Director of Dachlos Antiquities and head of the excavation mission, said the settlement had all the architectural components of a full-fledged community.
The excavations also yielded a rich collection of finds reflecting daily life and economic activity, including household pottery, bottles for storing oils and perfumes, oil lamps, and stone tools for grinding grains.
“One of the most significant excavation discoveries is a collection of nearly 200 ostraca (pottery shards used as writing material) with inscriptions in both Coptic and Greek,” said Diaa Zahran, head of the Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish Antiquities Sector.
The inscriptions record commercial transactions, correspondence, and other everyday details, providing an exceptional documentary testimony of the city’s inhabitants.
This discovery is one of two important archaeological finds announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Gold leaves in the mouths of the dead
During separate excavations at the Marina el-Alamein site, about 60 miles west of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, archaeologists uncovered 18 ancient tombs, including a huge 8-foot-long granite sarcophagus with human remains.
They also found a damaged plaster sphinx and several bodies buried with thin gold leaves placed in their mouths.
This burial practice, known as the “golden tongue,” was believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to help the deceased speak in the afterlife.
Although Egypt is best known for its pharaohs and pyramids, it was part of the Byzantine Empire for more than 250 years.
During this period, from the late 4th century to the mid-7th century, Christianity became the dominant religion, cities spread across the country, and Egypt was one of the wealthiest provinces of the empire.
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The newly discovered settlement dates precisely to this era and provides a rare glimpse of life when Roman traditions, Christian beliefs, and Egyptian culture intertwined.
Shaken by earthquakes
Earlier this year, archaeologists revealed one of the Great Pyramid’s secrets – showing how this ancient tomb survived earthquakes for 4600 years.
Earlier this year, archaeologists revealed one of the Great Pyramid’s secrets.
Since its construction, this remarkable structure has experienced significant earthquakes with magnitudes up to 6.8. Earthquakes of this strength can cause major damage to buildings within a 250 km radius of the epicenter.
However, the Great Pyramid, built for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu, suffered no major internal or external damage.
In May, experts finally figured out why – and it was due to the amazing engineering methods used by the ancient Egyptians.
This included building the structure on a solid limestone rock foundation, a symmetrical pyramid shape, a strong overall construction, and pressure-reducing cavities above the King’s Chamber.
Egypt during Byzantine rule
The Byzantine period in Egypt began in 395 AD, when the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western parts after the death of Emperor Theodosius I.
Egypt became part of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, with its capital at Constantinople – present-day Istanbul.
Although the empire was ruled from afar, hundreds of miles away, Egypt remained one of its wealthiest and strategically most important provinces due to its fertile land and grain exports.
Christianity flourished during the Byzantine era, transforming Egypt’s religious and cultural landscape.
Churches and monasteries were built across the country, and many cities expanded and prospered under imperial rule.
However, this period was also marked by religious disputes between the Byzantine authorities and the growing Egyptian Coptic Christian community, especially over differing beliefs about the nature of Christ.
The Byzantine Empire ruled Egypt for more than two centuries until 641 AD, when the country was conquered by Arab Muslim forces.
Many settlements from that period were later abandoned or buried under shifting desert sands, making well-preserved finds like the Dachlos oasis site extremely rare.
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