[3] The pharaoh Psamtik I installed a garrison at Marea in 654 BCE to secure the western borders of his kingdom after he had previously defeated the Libyan tribes living in the area who had taken over the Oxyrhynchite nome of Lower Egypt.

[5] The site of Marea was a large port city in the Roman period, and possibly already in the Ptolemaic times.

The research results indicate that the harbor might have functioned until the medieval period, as attested by finds dated to the 13th–14th century.

[5] A bath complex and a funerary chapel dated to the 6th century, as well as a large (49 m by 47 m) basilica with a transept, are examples of Byzantine architecture at the site.

[6] An important discovery was made in 2001: the largest known set of ostraca from the 5th–6th century was found, inscribed with notes regarding the construction of the basilica.