Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has announced a key archaeological find in Beheira Governorate, where an Egyptian mission uncovered a structure believed to be a guesthouse from the early days of Coptic monasticism in the fifth century. The discovery at the Al-Qalaya site in Hosh Issa sheds light on early monastic architecture.
An Egyptian mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities has unearthed a fifth-century structure at the Al-Qalaya site in Hosh Issa, Beheira Governorate, believed to have functioned as a monastic guesthouse during the early phase of Coptic monasticism. Hisham El-Leithy, the council’s Secretary-General, described the find as a vital addition to understanding early monastic architecture, noting that Al-Qalaya ranks as the second-largest monastic settlement in Christian monasticism history, with designs reflecting the initial stages of monastery evolution in Egypt. The building features 13 rooms serving various purposes, including private and communal monk quarters, hospitality areas, and teaching spaces. Diaa Zahran, Head of the Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish Antiquities Sector, highlighted a northern spacious hall with decorated stone benches for visitors and a central apse prayer area with a limestone cross embedded in the eastern wall. Excavations yielded wall paintings of incomplete monastic figures in attire, plant motifs, and a mural of two gazelles amid vegetal decorations and a symbolic circle. Field director Samir Rizk Abdel Hafez reported a two-metre marble column, capitals, bases, pottery, ostraca inscribed with Coptic letters or geometric and floral patterns, animal and bird bones, and seashells indicating monks’ diets. A standout item is a rectangular limestone slab with a Coptic inscription, a funerary stele for “Abba Kyr, son of Shenouda.” The mission has been active at Al-Qalaya since 2023, previously discovering “manshobiyat” monastic clusters, service buildings, and more wall paintings.