of Coptic diacritics and instead having special characters based on Meroitic hieroglyphs. However, ultimately the classification of this language and its relationship to Old Nobiin has yet to be specified. In the 1830s it was said a Nubian language was still being spoken as far south as Berber near the junction of the Nile and the Atbara. It was supposedly similar to Kenzi but with many differences. Although Greek, a prestigious sacral language, was used, it does not appear to have been spoken. An example of the use of Greek in Alodia is the tombstone of King David from Soba, where it is written with quite correct grammar. Al-Aswani noted that books were written in Greek and then translated into Nubian. The Christian liturgy was also in Greek. Coptic was probably used to communicate with the Patriarch of Alexandria, but written Coptic remains are very sparse. Apart from Nubian, a multitude of languages were spoken throughout the kingdom. In the Nuba mountains several Kordofanian languages occurred together with Hill Nubian dialects. Upstream along the Blue Nile Eastern Sudanic languages like Berta or Gumuz were spoken. In the eastern territories lived the Beja, who spoke their own Cushitic language, as did the Semitic Arabs and the Tigre. Church architecture The existence of 400 churches has been recorded throughout the kingdom; most have yet to be located. Only seven have been identified so far, given the simple names of church "A", "B", "C", "E", the "Mound C" church in Soba, the church in Saqadi and the temple-church in Musawwarat as-Sufra. A hypothetical church was recently discovered in Abu Erteila in the western Butana. Churches "A"–"C" as well as the "Mound C" church were basilicas comparable to the largest Makurian churches. The Saqadi church was an insertion into a pre-existing structure. Church "E" and the church of Musawwarat es-Sufra were "normal" churches. Thus, the known Alodian houses of worship can be categorized into three classes. On "Mound B" in Soba lay the standalone complex of the three churches "A", "B" and "C". Churches "A" and "B", both probably built in the mid-9th century, were large buildings, the first measuring and the second . Church "C" was much smaller and built after the other two churches, probably after 900. The three churches had many similarities, including having a narthex, wide entrances on the main east-west axis and a pulpit along the north side of