KALBA, K. EL-  [42]

 
 

Was two high mounds with low core between in 1912: Arab tombs in centre. Ptolemaic finds from sondages. Outlying mound 0.5 km to N, levelled to fields: some limestone blocks in 1912.   Information collected for the Delta Survey by Joanne Rowland, 2006: 'When we returned to trace the previously known co-ordinates, it transpired that one of the mounds is now under the town of Sidud and the other a raised area of land today covered in houses and a Coptic church.  It might be that the mound on which the Coptic church stands is one of the 1912 mounds, as there is an Islamic cemetery (which may be the ‘Arab cemetery’ referred to in the 1912 writings). To the site of the church, in old times, there was a channel called Kom el-Kalba, which is now covered. The church may have been built on top of this, around 100 years ago. We spoke to the Orthodox priest and he said that the church has been here for 50 years, built on top of the old church. Both old and new  churches are called el-Adra. When the big house behind the back of the church at Kom el-Kalba was built, the villagers told that a lot of stones were found under the house. Some stone blocks and red bricks were noted in Sidud village, east of this site.'