In its third season in Egypt , the Norwegian-French archaeological mission working on the Tal site south of Qasr Al-Ajouz in Bahariya (Northern) Oases unearthed a number of buildings constructed of basalt stone carved into the rocks and buildings constructed of mud bricks.
Dr. Osama Talaat, head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector affiliated to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that the mud brick buildings, which date back to between the fourth and seventh centuries AD, consist of six regions that include the remains of three churches and the monks' huts, and the walls bear scribbles and symbols bearing Coptic connotations.
On the other hand, Dr. Victor Ghica, head of the mission, indicated that the current season of the mission for the year 2020 has been revealed 19 rooms carved into the rock and a church that maintains its own structure attached to it two rooms carved into the rock and the walls bear writings in yellow ink that include religious writings from the Bible in the Greek language.
Those writings reflect the nature of monastic life in this region and indicates that monks settled in this region since the fifth century AD.
And the first sector of the six regions is a church, a restaurant (dining hall), huts for the residence of monks and a number of rooms, in addition to many pieces of ostraca(shreds of pottery) bearing Greek writings dating back for the fifth and sixth centuries AD.
The importance of this discovery is due to discovering at the planning of buildings and understanding the formation of the first monastic congregations in Egypt in this region.
Contributed by Ahmed Moamar
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