His tomb was found during excavations of an international team representing seven European academic institutions and led by Austrian scholar Prof. Dr. Helmut Buschhausen in 1992.

[4] When German scholar Otto Friedrich August Meinardus visited the monastery in the 1960s, the place was in ruins with remains stretching over a wide area.

Pieces of gray granite were also found, suggesting that the monastery may have been built on the location where an ancient temple once stood.

Approximately 80 meters from the ruined monastery one finds the cave of Saint Fana, the location where he reportedly lived.

[5] The surviving old monastic building consists of an ancient basilica, deeply sunk into the sand in the center of a vast mound that, according to the Coptic Encyclopedia, "no doubt" conceals the ruins of the Monastery.

The subsequent attack left one Muslim killed, four Christians wounded, and three monks being briefly kidnapped, requiring hospital treatment upon their return.

[13][14][15] The clashes were followed one day later by a demonstration of around 300 Coptic youth in Mallawi who blamed the government for "inaction in the face of repeated attacks by Muslims against their community.

Governor Ahmed Dia el-Din found a number of police reports documenting disputes over land that span several years.

[28] Coptic leader Pope Shenouda stated that the assailants did not want the monks to cultivate the desert land they legally possess.

[30] The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church called on the Egyptian President Muhammad Husni Mubarak to intervene to prevent a repetition of similar assaults.

Al Baz claims that the monks pretended that the attacks were of a sectarian nature to obtain people's compassion and prove that they are persecuted.

Al-Shubaki referred to the widespread use of urfi agreements and the system of Wad al-Yad – a common practice to obtain land.

[34] Coptic intellectual Dr. Samir Morkos believes this is a land-conflict with religious dimensions that were introduced to strengthen partisan positions.

The Washington Post on 7 July reported that attacks such as this one make the Christian Copts of Egypt turn inwards, strengthening a ghetto mentality.

Arab-West Report (English – Arabic[permanent dead link‍]) and the National Council for Human Rights each sent a delegation to the region to investigate the tensions.