Wadi Natrun
Where Communal Monasticism Was Invented. Four Monasteries Still Work In This Salt Depression, Two Of Them Continuously Since The Fourth Century, And The Desert Fathers Whose Sayings Were Written Down Here Shaped Christian Monastic Practice Everywhere That Followed; The Natron Lakes That Name The Valley Supplied Egyptian Mummification · Wadi Natrun, Beheira
Ninety-five kilometres north-west of Cairo, just off the desert road to Alexandria, a shallow depression holds salt lakes and four working monasteries, and this is where communal Christian monasticism was invented. Anthony had gone into the Eastern Desert alone; here in the fourth century his followers worked out how a community of monks could actually live together, and the sayings of the Desert Fathers that were collected in this valley went on to shape monastic practice everywhere in Christendom. Two of the four houses - Deir Anba Bishoy and Deir al-Suryan - have been continuously inhabited for sixteen hundred years, which puts them among the oldest functioning institutions on earth. They are walled compounds with keeps built against Bedouin raids, whitewashed churches, ancient manuscripts and gardens, and they are full of Coptic pilgrims most weekends. The natron salts that give the valley its name were what ancient Egypt used to dry its mummies.
Desert depression 95 km north-west of Cairo on the Alexandria desert road, with four working monasteries spread across it, Wadi Natrun, Beheira, Egypt
The monasteries receive visitors in daylight hours, free, with donation boxes, and they are working communities rather than sites: THEY CLOSE TO VISITORS DURING FASTING PERIODS including much of Lent, on dates that move with the Coptic calendar, so confirm before driving out. Deir Anba Bishoy and Deir al-Suryan are the two usually open and are a kilometre apart; Deir al-Baramus is further north; Deir Anba Maqar - Saint Macarius - normally requires permission arranged in advance and is not a drop-in. Dress is enforced at every gate: covered shoulders and knees, and a headscarf for women in church. Services are not visited as a spectacle. Weekends bring Coptic pilgrims in numbers. The desert road from Cairo takes about ninety minutes and there is no useful public transport to the gates.