An Egyptian archaeological team excavating the Manqabad site northwest of Assiut has exposed a two-storey brick building dated to the sixth–seventh centuries CE, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced. The discovery was detailed in the English-language Egyptian Gazette.
The Manqabad ruins, first surveyed in 1965 and re-opened to large-scale excavation in 2024, lie about 22 km from Assiut International Airport. Researchers will continue documenting the murals and architecture in hopes of clarifying the complex’s role in Coptic heritage.
Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mohamed Ismail Khaled called the complex “a significant addition to our understanding of early Christian architecture,” noting its white-mortared walls, three parallel halls on the upper level and a lower floor of elongated chambers reached by a staircase.
Among several painted murals, archaeologists highlighted a striking image of “a multitude of eyes centred on a single face,” which they interpret as a Coptic symbol of spiritual vigilance. A second fresco shows a bearded man holding a small child—likely Joseph the Carpenter with the infant Jesus—flanked by disciples and accompanied by Coptic inscriptions.
Artifacts from the lower rooms include pottery inscribed with Coptic letters, a stone frieze carved with a deer and a lion, and a tombstone naming a local saint—all of which, the team says, illuminate daily life and liturgical practice in Upper Egypt’s early Christian communities.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.