Official Clarification Expected on ‘Great Church of Jesus’ in Old Dongola

Sudanhorizon – Nashwa Ahmed Al-Tayeb

Minister of Culture, Information, Antiquities and Tourism Khalid Al-Aiser has told Sudanhorizon that an official clarification will be issued regarding reports circulated by international and local media outlets and platforms in recent days about new archaeological discoveries at the Great Church in Old Dongola, Northern State.

Sudanhorizon had asked the minister what had been officially established about the published reports and what remained subject to interpretation, amid conflicting accounts regarding the timing of work at the site, the building’s size and its identity. He responded that the official clarification should be awaited.

The Polish-Sudanese archaeological mission, led by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw in partnership with the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, announced in early November the findings of what it described as its latest field season during the winter of 2025-2026. These included the discovery of a massive staircase leading into the church, reaching the level of its original floor for the first time, identifying remains of a second church on the first floor of an adjoining building, and uncovering plaster fragments bearing Greek inscriptions.

The announcement received widespread coverage in international media and on Arab and Sudanese platforms. Some reports presented it as the discovery of a previously unknown church. However, Sudanese archaeology specialists questioned aspects of the reports, also noting that identifying the building as the “Great Church of Jesus” and describing it as a cathedral remain unconfirmed hypotheses, contrary to the way some reports have presented them.

Published documents confirm that the mission announced the discovery of the building in 2021, when it uncovered its apse, measuring six metres in diameter, and estimated the church’s width at approximately 26 metres. More recent estimates, including that the building is 47 metres wide and about 57 metres long, have been described by the mission as preliminary. The mission says it hopes to establish the building’s full dimensions during the next field season.

The expected official clarification is likely to address several key questions, most notably: Is the discovered building indeed the “Great Church of Jesus”, as reported by various platforms, or does attributing that name to it remain an unconfirmed hypothesis? Were actual excavation works carried out at the site during the latest season, and under whose Sudanese supervision? Which of the published claims have been established, and which remain tentative?

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