Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced two major archaeological finds on Saturday, July 4. One is a well-preserved fourth-century Byzantine residential city in the Dakhla Oasis, in the country’s western desert. The other is 18 newly excavated ancient tombs at Marina el-Alamein, on the northwest Mediterranean coast.
Both finds slot into a sector the government treats as a critical foreign-currency earner, alongside the Suez Canal. Egypt welcomed a record 19 million tourists in 2025, a 21% increase from 2024, according to official figures. The first four months of 2026 drew 6.1 million visitors, up from 5.7 million in the same period a year earlier.
Two Egyptian Finds, Together in One Release
The two findings were packaged in a single Saturday release, an unusual structure that points to the ministry’s interest in cultural tourism as a foreign-currency lever. The Dakhla Oasis find concerns a fourth-century Byzantine residential city, hundreds of miles from the Nile. The Marina el-Alamein find concerns 18 tombs at one of Egypt’s best-preserved ancient coastal sites.
Ministry officials framed the dual announcement as the latest in a string of cultural-heritage reveals aimed at diversifying tourist travel beyond the Nile Valley and Red Sea mainstays. The Egyptian government has identified antiquities sightseeing, alongside the Suez Canal, as one of its principal foreign-currency earners in a country with strained finances. Marina el-Alamein sits on the coast; the Dakhla Oasis lies deep in the western desert, more than 600 kilometres from Cairo.
The Saturday statement follows paired announcements from earlier in the year. Last month, Egyptian archaeologists uncovered a system of medieval water reservoirs at Aydhab, a Red Sea port the ministry flagged for expanded archaeological work. The repeated pattern of multi-site announcements underscores a strategy of surfacing discoveries in less-visited corners of the country.
A Byzantine Settlement in the Dakhla Oasis
The Dakhla Oasis find centres on a Byzantine residential city that dates to the fourth century, when Egypt was governed from Constantinople as part of the eastern Roman empire. Hisham el-Leithy, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the uncovered quarters include north-south thoroughfares intersected by east-west streets, forming open squares and public spaces. The layout reads as a working city plan, not a scattered rural site.
A basilica church from the mid-fourth century stands at the settlement’s head, Mahmoud Massoud, who chairs the archaeological mission, said in the ministry’s statement. The basilica overlooks the settlement’s main streets alongside the remains of two watchtowers positioned to safeguard the outskirts. The combination of a fortified perimeter and religious architecture at the top of the layout suggests a settlement designed for defence and worship, as well as daily life.
The recovered artefacts span coinage, writing materials and household items. The site also produced this collection of recorded finds, per the ministry:
- Bronze coins bearing portraits of Byzantine emperors
- Latin inscriptions and Christian symbols on walls and pottery
- Gold coins from the reign of Roman emperor Constantius II (337-361)
- About 200 pottery fragments (ostraca) used as writing material, with inscriptions detailing commercial transactions and correspondence
Diaa Zahran, head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities department, said the ostraca give a granular view of daily transactions and personal messages from residents. Among the houses identified is the structure marked as the home of Tisous, a church deacon, dating to the second half of the fourth century. Archaeologists believe the building served as a private house church before the larger basilica was built at the settlement’s head. The discovery sits in a New Valley province landscape already on UNESCO’s Tentative List, a step away from being added to the World Heritage List.
Marina el-Alamein’s Eighteen New Tombs
At Marina el-Alamein, an archaeological site roughly 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Alexandria, Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered 18 ancient tombs. Eleven are rock-cut tombs, called hypogea, with an average depth of eight metres. Seven are surface tombs built of limestone. Several of the burial chambers, the ministry said, remain sealed by their original stone slabs and untouched since antiquity.
Mission chief Eman Abdel-Khaliq said the team found a 2.5-metre-long granite sarcophagus, with its original lid still in place and human skeletal remains inside undergoing scientific examination. Near the sarcophagus, archaeologists recovered the remains of a plaster sphinx statue, she said. The ministry noted the sphinx as continuing evidence of Egyptian religious and artistic traditions stretching into the Hellenistic and Roman eras.
The team also recovered 4 gold pieces placed inside the mouths of some of the deceased, a funerary practice referred to as ‘the golden tongue’ that archaeologists link to beliefs about speech in the afterlife. Beyond the gold, the ministry reported finds of pottery vessels, amphorae, oil lamps, plates, limestone altars and basins. A water well, later reused as a burial shaft, gave the team evidence that ancient Egyptian funerary customs continued unbroken through the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
| Site | Location | Period | Lead Finds | Quoted Officials |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dakhla Oasis | Western Desert, New Valley province; on UNESCO’s Tentative List | Fourth century AD, Byzantine Empire | Basilica church, two watchtowers, ~200 ostraca, bronze and gold coins, fortified perimeter | Hisham el-Leithy, Mahmoud Massoud, Diaa Zahran |
| Marina el-Alamein | Mediterranean coast, ~100 km west of Alexandria | New tombs: Hellenistic through Byzantine (1st-4th c. AD); site known since 1986 | 18 new tombs (11 rock-cut hypogea, 7 limestone surface), sealed 2.5-metre sarcophagus, plaster sphinx, 4 gold tongues | Eman Abdel-Khaliq, Hisham el-Leithy |
Behind Marina el-Alamein, a Lost Port Called Leukaspis
Marina el-Alamein is widely believed to be the ancient city of Leukaspis, the Greco-Roman port that the Greek geographer Strabo noted on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. The site was built in the second century and reached its commercial and maritime height between the first and third centuries AD, the ministry said. It declined in the fourth century.
Excavations there have already revealed what Egypt’s state-run Ahram newspaper described as ‘one of Egypt’s best-preserved ancient coastal cities, with its street grid, residential quarters, public buildings, harbour, commercial districts and extensive cemeteries.’ The finds expose a working city plan written across more than a millennium of Mediterranean trade.
The 18 new tombs sit on top of one of the longest-running, season-by-season excavations on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. According to the State Information Service, Egypt’s state news outlet, the Marina el-Alamein discovery announcement and 2027 development plan puts the cumulative tomb count at the site at 44, including the 18 newly opened this season.
- 18: newly excavated tombs at Marina el-Alamein
- 11: rock-cut hypogea among them, averaging 8 metres deep
- 7: surface tombs built of limestone
- 2.5 metres: length of the sealed granite sarcophagus
- 44: total tombs at the site since excavations began in 1986
Why the Tourism Ministry Paired the Two Finds
Tourism, not archaeology for its own sake, is the ministry’s stated motive for pairing the two finds. Antiquities sightseeing is among the levers the Egyptian government uses to draw cultural travel outside the Nile Valley and Red Sea corridors. Each of the two new sites adds a destination the ministry can market to a wider range of visitors.
The numbers behind the framing are concrete. A record 19 million tourists visited Egypt last year, a 21% increase from 2024, according to official figures. The first four months of 2026 drew 6.1 million visitors, compared with 5.7 million in the same period of 2025, the official figures show. Tourism, alongside the Suez Canal, is one of the country’s main sources of foreign currency, a status the ministry has used to argue for cultural-heritage investment in less-visited regions.
A basilica church, dating back to the mid-fourth century, stands at the settlement’s head, overlooking its main streets, along with remains of two watchtowers to safeguard the outskirts.
Mahmoud Massoud, chair of the Egyptian archaeological mission, in the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry’s statement.
The same logic is visible at Marina el-Alamein. The site sits on the northwest Mediterranean coast, in a region the ministry has identified as already having beach tourism, with the cultural anchor meant to widen it. The Dakhla Oasis find sits in an area on UNESCO’s Tentative List, where the development pitch is to extend tourist stays in Egypt’s western desert. Both finds are positioned as anchors for a longer, more geographically dispersed visit.
Marina el-Alamein’s Site Heads to a 2027 Opening
Marina el-Alamein’s visitor programme is already on a calendar. Hisham el-Leithy said the development plan for the site includes a visitor centre, electric carts, pedestrian pathways, a museum storage facility, an administrative building and an open-air theatre. Completion is targeted for the first half of 2027, the ministry said. By then, the site is intended to function as a fully integrated archaeological and tourist destination alongside the North Coast’s beach offerings.
Tourism Minister Sherif Fathy, whose office oversees the development work, framed the Marina el-Alamein find as a window onto the site’s ancient inhabitants and the wider Mediterranean world. The Dakhla Oasis settlement sits on a separate clock. As part of an area on UNESCO’s Tentative List, the New Valley oasis has both a heritage clearance track to run and a parallel domestic tourism route to develop. No opening timeline has been announced for the western-desert site.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Egypt find at the Dakhla Oasis?
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said archaeologists uncovered a well-preserved fourth-century Byzantine residential city in the Dakhla Oasis. According to Hisham el-Leithy, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the layout includes north-south thoroughfares intersected by east-west streets and open squares. Mahmoud Massoud, chair of the archaeological mission, said a basilica church from the mid-fourth century stands at the settlement’s head, with the remains of two watchtowers at the periphery.
What did Egypt find at Marina el-Alamein?
At Marina el-Alamein, archaeologists found 18 ancient tombs: 11 rock-cut hypogea with an average depth of 8 metres and 7 surface limestone-built tombs. Mission chief Eman Abdel-Khaliq said the team recovered a 2.5-metre-long granite sarcophagus with its lid still sealed, plus the remains of a plaster sphinx statue nearby. The team also recovered 4 gold pieces placed inside the mouths of some of the deceased, in a practice known as the golden tongue.
When was the Dakhla Oasis city built and used?
The settlement dates to the fourth century AD, when Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire, the eastern Roman state that lasted until the Ottoman conquest. The basilica church at its head is dated to the mid-fourth century. Coins found at the site include gold from the reign of Roman emperor Constantius II, who ruled between 337 and 361.
Why did Egypt announce the two finds on the same day?
Egypt’s tourism sector has been recovering from the political turmoil and violence that followed the 2011 uprising and the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic. A record 19 million tourists visited Egypt in 2025, a 21% increase from 2024, according to official figures. Antiquities sightseeing, the ministry has said, is one of the country’s levers for cultural tourism beyond the Nile and Red Sea corridors.
Can visitors see either site?
Marina el-Alamein sits on a development track to open as a public archaeological and tourist destination, with completion targeted for the first half of 2027. The plans include a visitor centre, electric carts, pedestrian pathways, a museum storage facility and an open-air theatre. The Dakhla Oasis lies within an area on UNESCO’s Tentative List, a step away from being added to the World Heritage List. No visitor opening timeline has been announced.
