The fortress-like Coptic monastery of St
Anthony the Great stands at an oasis spring in the Red Sea Mountains, 155
km (100 miles) south east of Cairo. It was founded in the mid-4th century,
on Saint Anthony's burial site. He, along with St Pachomius (the first
monk to organise hermits into groups) were two of
the first exponents of Christian monasticism, which originated in the
Egyptian desert. The Coptic orthodox monastery, presided over by an abbot,
is the oldest Christian monastery in the world.
The church is one of Egypt's great
treasures - some of the wall paintings here date from the 6th and the 9th
centuries, and among them is a picture of the founder, St Anthony himself.
He lived in a tiny cave, high above the desert, for 40 years soon after AD
300, and the monastery - really a city in the desert - was built in the
360s. Amazingly, the monks who live here still speak Coptic, a language
directly descended from the language of the ancient Egyptians.
