The fourth book of the American University in Cairo Press's "ARCE Conservation Series" is now available: Babylon of Egypt: The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City, by Peter Sheehan.

Cairo is one of the world’s great cities and its history is enormously complex. The part of the city known as Old Cairo is an archaeologically rich area with architectural roots going back to the reign of Diocletian.

Peter Sheehan’s book looks at the new and important archaeological evidence gathered from 2000-2006 when a small archaeological team, led by Sheehan and funded through the USAID/ARCE EAP grant, monitored the activities of a major USAID-funded project to lower the groundwater affecting the ancient Roman ruins and Coptic churches in the area.

Using boreholes, tunnels, and excavations deep below modern ground level, the team produced evidence of continuous occupation going beyond the historic Roman roots and into the formation of the natural landscape of Old Cairo and the first settlement here during the middle of the first millennium BC.

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