Labib Habachi

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Labib Habachi (April 18, 1906 – February 18, 1984) was an Egyptian egyptologist. Born in Mansoura to a Coptic family, he studied at the Coptic School and the Maronite School, and attended Fouad I University. He spent about 30 years in Egypt’s Antiquities Department, finishing his career as Chief Inspector, with extensive fieldwork across Egypt and Sudan. He later joined the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago as an Archaeological Consultant to its Nubian Expedition.

Habachi is known for his work on the Hyksos period and the site of Avaris. While Pierre Montet identified Avaris with Tanis, Habachi disagreed. In 1941–42, working for the Egyptian Antiquities Service, he argued that Avaris lay at Tell el-Dab’a. This view was later supported by Manfred Bietak’s research in the 1980s, which confirmed that the Hyksos capital was indeed Tell el-Dab’a.

He died in Cairo and was buried at the Monastery of St. Theodore in Malqata. His parents were Habachi Ibrahim and Mauna Habachi.