The answer
Dr. Aziz Surial Atiya says that the Copts took pride in their Pharaonic culture. Thus, in spite of the fact that invaders — whether Greeks, Romans, Persians or Byzantines — left their marks on the Egyptian culture, it would be a grave error to assume that Egyptian art was established by any of these at any time. Modern architects have recently started to question the well-established idea that our architecture was only another branch or another form of the Basilica of Byzantine architecture, or that it is a mixture of the two. To that effect, Hamilton affirms as an example that “Egyptian churches could be categorized as a distinct identity, as ‘Coptic architecture.’ Their character was dictated by its liturgical and ecclesiastical traditions, and its structure bears the mark of its nationalism.”
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty