Although Asyut was a major Christian center in pre-modern times, as it still is today, our picture of its Christian landscape is unclear, since would-be archaeologists destroyed architectural remains in search for pharaonic treasures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author illustrates these points by discussing two sites that have received a certain amount of scholarly interest in recent decades: Dayr al-Gabrawi, north of Asyut, and Dayr al-‘Izam, west of Asyut.

First published in: G. Gabra, and H.N. Takla (eds.), Christianity and monasticism in Middle Egypt: Al-Minya and Asyut, Cairo/New York: American University in Cairo Press 2015, 161–68.