Between 1950 and 1952, the church was again pulled down, apart from its two bell towers, and replaced by a larger building of reinforced concrete, with six marble pillars retained as part of the new portico, and with the icon carrier reinstated.

[citation needed] St. Mark the Evangelist (author of the second Gospel) has been connected with the city of Alexandria since earliest Christian tradition.

[citation needed] In 828, relics believed to be the body of St. Mark were stolen from Alexandria by Venetian merchants and taken to Venice.

This takes place inside St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria, where the saint's head is preserved.

Some of the relics from the body of St. Mark, however, were returned to Alexandria from Rome in 1968 during the papacy of Coptic Pope Cyril VI.

[3] In AD 311, before the martyrdom of Pope Peter the Last of Martyrs, he prayed a last prayer on the grave of Saint Mark, the church was then a little chapel on the eastern coast[citation needed], and it contained bodies said to be of Saint Mark and some of his holy successors.

In 828, the body of Saint Mark was stolen by Italian sailors and was taken from Alexandria to Venice in Italy.

The church was rebuilt and opened in 1819 by Pope Peter El Gawly in the time of Mohammed Ali Pasha.

The church was renewed in the time of Pope Demetrius II and by the supervision of Bishop Marcos of El Behira in 1870.