[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/716.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tArchaeologists working in Egypt\u2019s Western Desert have uncovered a well-preserved Byzantine-era city at the Dakhla Oasis, reports Heritage Daily<\/em>. According to the country\u2019s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the discovery provides important insights into daily life when Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tExcavation of the fourth-century settlement, conducted at the Ain Al-Sabil archaeological site by a mission from Egypt\u2019s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), revealed a street grid, residential and religious buildings, and fortifications. The find also included coins, pottery fragments, and tools.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to Hisham el-Leithy, secretary general of the SCA, the city was built around wide north-south roads intersected by east-west streets, creating open public spaces. At its heart, a fourth-century Christian basilica overlooking one of the city\u2019s main thoroughfares, while two watchtowers guarded its outskirts.<\/p>\n \n\tAmong the residential buildings were the home of a deacon named Tisous and another that researchers think may have originally been a house church before the construction of the basilica. The excavators also unearthed bread ovens, kitchens, and grain-grinding installations.<\/p>\n \n\tThe most notable finds were a group of gold coins dated to the reign of Roman emperor Constantius II, who ruled between 337 and 361, and a collection of about 200 ostraca\u2014pottery fragments used as writing surfaces\u2014inscribed in Coptic and Greek. According to Diaa Zahran, head of the SCA\u2019s department of Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities, these ostraca contain commercial contracts, details of business transactions, and personal correspondence, providing rare evidence of the city\u2019s social and economic life. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe discovery represents one of the most significant Byzantine settlements found in Egypt\u2019s Western Desert to date, said the SCA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/byzantine-era-city-found-egypt-western-desert-1234791177\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/716.jpeg?w=1024″] Archaeologists working in Egypt\u2019s Western Desert have uncovered a well-preserved Byzantine-era city at the Dakhla Oasis, reports Heritage Daily. According to the country\u2019s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the discovery provides important insights into daily life when Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire. \u00a0 Excavation of the fourth-century settlement, conducted at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2030241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2030241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2030241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2030241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2030241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}