The site was discovered in late December and was focused on extracting objects of note. A stated objective in the excavation report was to recover additional pieces of the Naos of the Decades by excavating the temple precinct. Naville notes a large number of worked stones used in the construction of the adjacent modern village, but also that in conversations with a local sheikh a number of sculptures and inscribed stones had been present in the area in the 1860s and wonders: "It is possible that some of the dispersed monuments have found their way to the museums of Europe." (Naville 1887: 2).

Naville was exclusively interested in prestige items ie stone sculpture or inscribed stone, a colossal Rameses II statue, pieces of the Naos of the Decades, and a granodiorite stele of Ptolemy II Philadelphus were recovered.