Only Here

Only In Wadi Al Natroun

Wadi al-Natrun boasts some of the oldest monastic settlements in the world, which developed into the most significant monastic center in Egypt. Many ascetics, whose spiritual truths have been kept alive in the “Sayings of the Fathers,” lived here in the fourth and fifth centuries and provided us with significant material for understanding the cultural and social milieus of the ascetic life. Their wisdom influenced monastic life in both the east and the west. European, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Armenian monks joined the monasteries of Wadi al-Natrun, endowing the place with a multi-ethnic character, and these monasteries have always provided the Coptic Church with the greater number of its patriarchs and bishops. The spiritual and artistic heritage of this unique Coptic site is beyond estimation.