Apart from mural paintings, the removal of 18th century plaster has also yielded numerous texts, written and painted on the walls. They are of a great variety of sorts, ranging from simple graffiti by visitors to elaborate commemorative texts. So far texts have been found in Coptic, Syriac, Greek, Armenian and Arabic.
The great importance of these texts lies in the fact that they help dating the paintings and the layers of plaster on which they were applied and that they contribute to our knowledge of the history of the monastery, its inhabitants, and its visitors. Some of the names of monks that were found on the walls also occur in manuscripts from the monastery’s library, many of which are now in the British Library. Combining information from these sources is an important help in wrting the monastery’s history.