Wadi El Natrun Monasteries, Egypt
Wadi El-Natrun is a desert depression (about 23 meters below sea level) about 60 kilometers long located in the governorate of Al Buhayrah (Egypt), about 90 kilometers northwest of Cairo.
In Arabic, its name means “Valley of Nitrates”, due to the presence of eight different lakes containing nitrates in the surrounding area. In Coptic, the region is also known as Shi-Hyt, which can be translated as “balance of the heart” or “measure of hearts”.
History
The region of Wadi El-Natrun was and remains one of the most sacred regions for Christianity. The first Christian settlement was due to Saint Macarius the Great, who settled there around 330.
Between the 3rd and 7th centuries, it attracted a huge number of people who came here to enter one of more than one hundred monasteries in the Nitria Desert. Many anchorites, hermits, and monks lived there, either in the desert itself or on the hills bordering it, attracted by the solitude and harshness of desert life.
These individuals believed that living in this region would teach them contempt for the material world and would allow ascetics to respond better to God’s call.
The importance of the region declined from the seventh century onwards. Already from the beginning of the 5th century, the monasteries suffered attacks and looting by the nomads living in the Libyan desert.
With the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641, many of the monasteries were destroyed and plundered by the Arabs.
There are still four Coptic Orthodox monasteries in the region today, where a large group of monks (about 500) live. The Cenobi, founded in the 4th century, is considered the oldest monasteries in Christendom:
- Monastery of St. Macarius
- Syrian Monastery
- Monastery of San Bishoi
- Monastery of the Romans
