Photo : Olaf Tausch — CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Aswan · West bank
Monastery of Saint Simeon
A fortified monastery abandoned in the thirteenth century, alone in the west-bank sand.
Founded around the seventh century and rebuilt in the tenth, the monastery carries the name of Anba Hadra, a hermit of this region; travellers and drivers call it Saint Simeon. Its wall is stone in the lower courses and mud brick above, and inside there is a church whose apse keeps the remains of a painted Christ, vaulted cells where the beds are earth benches, a press, an oven and stables: a house that fed itself on the desert edge, and a stage on the road to Nubia. It was abandoned in the thirteenth century and never lived in again, which is why the plan reads so clearly — nothing was built on top of it. From the river it is half an hour uphill through sand, on foot or by camel, with the Aga Khan mausoleum left below.
The extra bit
Set off early and walk up if the sand is firm: the path from the river takes half an hour, and the monastery appears all at once above the ridge, whole, which no photograph taken inside it will show you. Fix the exact time of your return with the boatman before you land: there is nothing up there, not even shade to wait in.
Know before you go
Reckon on thirty to forty minutes uphill through sand, with no water, no shade and no shelter until the gate: at midday in summer this is not a stroll. Agree the camel before setting off, up and down for one price, or the fare home will not be the fare out. The place is disused but it is still a place of worship: the paintings are fragile and you do not lean on mud brick. No ramp, no regular steps, no level ground: out of reach in a wheelchair, and hard going with small children. Cash for the boat and for the camel alike.
