The island is situated between the 2nd and 3rd cataracts of the Nile, about 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Wadi Halfa, in the Batn-El-Hajar region.
It was fully excavated and recorded by the anthropologist William Yewdale Adams in 1969, and plans and elevations prepared by Friedrich Hinkel.
The entire building consisted of mud bricks with a single layer of rough stones at ground level.
[6] On the interior walls, fairly well preserved remains of two layers of murals were found in the east end of the sanctuary and in both aisles, but not in the eastern corner rooms.
Otherwise the church remains largely as it was when excavated, for it is above the level of waters impounded by the Aswan High Dam.