Koptos in the Roman/Byzantine Period: Coptic Church
blue: preserved parts; yellow: reconstructed parts
Parts of the church were first excavated by Petrie (and later by Reinach):
'The remains of a Coptic church... baptistery, which is valuable as probably the oldest oriental baptistery... the cruciform tank has three steps leading down into it.'
The church was mainly built of reused Ptolemaic and Roman pieces. The building seems to have been very important, indicated by its huge scale. The nave (the middle aisle of the basilica) is already 9.5 m wide. The whole building is about 70 m long.
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