Photo : Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Marsa Alam & the Red Sea · Eastern Desert
Monastery of Saint Antony
A fourth-century Coptic monastery under an Eastern Desert cliff, still lived in today.
The monastery sits at the foot of the Galala cliff in the Eastern Desert, hours of driving from Cairo, with the Red Sea far off to the east. Monks settled here in the fourth century around the cave where Antony, whom tradition calls the father of monks, ended his life; it is held to be the oldest Christian monastery still inhabited. Behind the whitewashed wall you see first — a cross, a bell arch, a wooden gallery running along the parapet — there is a community, gardens, a mill, a keep tower and a library of manuscripts. The church of Saint Antony keeps thirteenth-century wall paintings, brought back out from under centuries of soot. The cave itself is higher up the cliff, at the top of a stair you climb on foot.
The extra bit
Give it a whole day from Hurghada or from Zafarana rather than a stop along the way: the climb to the cave takes time, and the midday heat makes it hard going. If you cannot spare the day, the monasteries of Wadi el-Natrun are far closer to Cairo.
Know before you go
This is a praying community, not a visitor site: shoulders and knees covered for everyone, quiet in the churches, and you ask a monk before photographing him. Visits follow the church calendar and the fasting seasons, which cannot be guessed in advance: have your hotel or your driver ring the monastery the day before, and don't set off until you have the answer. The road is tarmac all the way to the gate, but between Zafarana and the monastery there is nothing: fuel, water and cash are picked up beforehand. The stair to the cave is long, unshaded and without a continuous handrail; the monastery itself is walked on the level.
Directions
Monastery of Saint Antony, Eastern Desert, west of Zafarana, Red Sea Governorate
Directions
