Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a well-preserved fourth-century Byzantine city in the Dakhla oasis (a remote settlement in Egypt's western New Valley province), featuring residential blocks, a mid-fourth-century basilica-style church, watchtowers, and a fortified structure with vaulted-roof houses. Among the finds were bread ovens, grinding tools, bronze coins bearing portraits of Byzantine emperors, gold coins from the reign of Constantius II, and around 200 ostraca — pottery fragments inscribed with commercial records and correspondence that offer rare insight into daily life. Separately, 18 additional ancient tombs were discovered at Marina el-Alamein (a Greco-Roman archaeological site on Egypt's northern Mediterranean coast), including a 2.5-metre granite sarcophagus and tombs where gold pieces had been placed in the mouths of the deceased — a funerary ritual of the era.