It is located in present-day Tell Atrib, just northeast of Benha on the hill of Kom Sidi Yusuf.

The town lies around 40 km north of Cairo, on the eastern bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile.

[7] Today, many of the preexisting artifacts are lost every year because local farmers like sebakh, fertilizer made from the ancient mudbrick blocks that were used for most of the buildings.

[9] A local temple was rebuilt by Amenhotep III during the Eighteenth Dynasty, although it no longer stands today.

[7] One of the two lying lion statues at the Egyptian Museum is thought to be from the temple, but since it was usurped by Ramesses II, its true origin is unknown.

Ramesses II also enlarged the local temple, placing two obelisks in black granite that are now located at the Egyptian Museum.

Although Athribis was occupied during the later dynasties, the city didn’t gain real power until the early Ptolemaic Kingdom.

During the middle Ptolemaic era and up to the 3rd century, Athribis was a busy town with a large therma (bathhouse), villas, and industrial buildings.

Each pillar was carved all over with vine branches, and the hollow (or, capitals) of them were sculptured and ornamented with cunning work in stone, and they were encircled with bands of gold and silver.

And near the image of the Virgin Mary were sculptured the figures of two angels (i.e., Michael and Gabriel) which stood one on each side of it.

And the lamps that were hanging before the image were made of gold and silver, and they ceased not to burn by day and by night, and [the servants of the church] kept them supplied and filled with oil.

[13]The first excavation of Athribis dates back to the French invasion of Egypt and Syria[citation needed] and again in 1852 by Auguste Mariette.

The subsequent directors, Karol Myśliwiec and Hanna Szymańska, studied the older layers of the site, dating to the Roman and Ptolemaic periods.

Made from either clay or terracotta, jugs that were Greek in design but clumsily crafted are found throughout the middle Ptolemaic era.