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Active between the fourth and eighth centuries A.D., the vast site housed multiple churches, monastic cells and other structuresExcavations in Egypt’s Western Desert have unearthed the ruins of an early Christian monastic site, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). Highlights of the discovery include three churches and a set of monks’ cells, or living quarters. Per a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, a joint French-Norwegian team found the basalt and mudbrick structures at Tel Ganub Qasr Al-‘Aguz in the Bahariya Oasis, some 230 miles southwest of Cairo. Some of the buildings were carved directly into the bedrock. Ancient Egyptians...

A French-Norwegian archaeological team has discovered new Christian ruins in Egypt’s Western Desert, revealing monastic life in the region in the fifth century AD, the Egyptian antiquities ministry said Saturday.The mission unearthed “several buildings made of basalt, others carved into the bedrock and some made of mud bricks,” during its third excavation campaign at the Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz site in the Bahariya Oasis, the ministry said in a statement.The complex is comprised of “six sectors containing the ruins of three churches and monks’ cells,” whose “walls bear graffiti and symbols with Coptic connotations,” said Osama Talaat, head of Islamic,...

CAIRO – Egyptian archaeologists discovered an intricately carved plaster sarcophagus portraying a wide-eyed woman dressed in a tunic in a newly uncovered complex of tombs at a remote desert oasis, Egypt's antiquities department announced Monday. It is the first Roman-style mummy found in Bahariya Oasis some 186 miles (300 kilometers) southwest of Cairo, said archaeologist Mahmoud Afifi, who led the dig. The find was part of a cemetery dating back to the Greco-Roman period containing 14 tombs. "It is a unique find," he told The Associated Press, confirming that initial examinations indicate a mummy is inside the coffin. The carved...