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Muyser has pointed out that the Arabic text bears all the indications of a translation from the Coptic, and that the Scala copte 44 identifies “Aidhab” with Berenike. According to the text of the Synaxarion, Bishop Nabis was born in a village near Coptos and became a monk at an early age. Bishop Nabis did not reside in “Aidhab” but in a small church at Coptos. When it was necessary for the bishop to go there himself, the Beja, a tribe that lived in Nubia and the Eastern Desert in Upper Egypt, carried him and the church ornaments on their camels, receiving a price for the hire of their beasts. The life of Pesynthios also records that Patriarch Theophilus (385–412) consecrated John, the younger brother of Pesynthios, as bishop of the diocese of Hermonthi.

Pesynthios's biography is preserved in Sahidic, Bohairic, and Arabic manuscripts, which will subsequently be referred to by means of sigla. Pesynthios, who did not aspire to the episcopal office, fled to the districts of Jeme (Western Thebes), but the clergy found him and brought him to Damian, patriarch of Alexandria (569–605), who ordained him bishop. Pesynthios probably continued to dwell in the Monastery of Tsenti, and was reputed for his prophetic gift and charity. The Sahidic, Bohairic, and Arabic versions display considerable variation in their titles and attribution. According to Górecki, Tomb 1151 may have served as a chapel, and Tomb 1152 appears to have been inhabited. In front of the entrance to this tomb was a tower almost six meters in height and built of mud bricks.

Adolphe Reinach and Raymond Weill bought several objects in Cairo from the antiquities dealer Michel Casira, who said they came from Coptos. They were drawn to the site by the remains of Ptolemaic and Roman architecture which Petrie had explored some fifteen years previously (Petrie 1896). These attested to the importance of the city in Hellenistic and Roman times, the era of Reinach's specialization. On arrival in Cairo, archaeologists not only paid the obligatory call at the Service des antiquités to pick up their permits to excavate, but also made the rounds of the dealers who were officially authorized by license. Reinach's trust in the Coptos provenance that Casira provided for the pieces he sold in 1910 was based on two factors. Weill and Reinach bought Coptic-style funerary stelae at Coptos.

The town of Ckin'e, which occupies the site of the ancient Cenopolis, is about four miles above the village of Den'dar'a, on the opposite side of the river. A little higher, on the opposite side of the river, about a mile and a half from the bank, is Ckooft, of Ckift. This area contains extensive remains of the great city of Coptos. These remains consist of little more than mounds of rubbish, among which are many ruined houses, solidly built, but of unburnt brick. There are considerable remains of walls which surrounded the town; apparently of Arab work. The small town of Ckoo's is about five miles above Ckooft, on the same side of the river. It is situated at the distance of about a mile from the river, upon extensive mounds of rubbish, which cover the site of Apollinopolis Parva.