(CE:881a-881b)
DAYR TASA, today the name of a Coptic village on the right bank of the Nile on the edge of the desert, south of ABNUB and opposite ABU TIJ. The cemetery and ancient church have been preserved.
No ancient author mentions it. S. CLARKE in 1912 noted the church and its titular, the archangel Michael, in his list of the Coptic churches (1912, p. 217, no. 21). This church is an attractive modern four-column building probably of the late eighteenth century, with walled-up columns and stuccoed capitals.
A little farther to the north some quarries fitted up as cells and containing Coptic inscriptions and a prayer niche are noted by G. Lefebvre (1908, p. 161).
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S.J.
