Tour

Tour Code

Wadi EL Natroun

CAI008

Full Day

Half Day

Tour Language

§           

All

Sites

1. Wadi EL Natroun

Description of Tour

Wadi Natrun, which is 60 mi/100 km northwest of Cairo is one of the prime attractions for the Christian religious tourist that come to Egypt. Christianity reached the area with St. Macarius the Great who retreated there in c.330. In the earliest decades of Christianity, the desert expanses of Wadi El Natroun became the site of anchoretic settlement and, later, of many monasteries, in spiritual commemoration of the Holy Family's passage through the Valley.

It's the spiritual center of the Coptic church and has the ruins of several monasteries and hermitages from the fourth to the ninth centuries. One of them that we will visit is Deir Abu Makaryus (most Coptic popes have been selected from the monks there). It has a dungeon-tower that incorporates no less than four churches and a wine vat. The second-floor church has an iconostasis and sculptures dating from the fourth and fifth centuries.

Our tour will consist mainly of visiting the monasteries located here as well as the rest of the sites.

For Your Information:

§          Good walking shoes and a hat are recommended.