Still another way to reach the monasteries is to join a church expedition. For further information in Cairo, contact the monasteries’ administration office (tel. 90 60 25) or the YMCA at 27 Al-Goumhonriya St. (tel. 91 73 60). The former sends a car to the monasteries every week. Note that you must have a letter of recommendation from the administration office in Cairo in order to visit St. Paul’s monastery. Also contact them in the summer about permission to spend the night at St. Anthony’s gratis. (In winter you don’t need permission.) The monks provide food and potable water on the house.

St. Anthony, raised in the Nile Valley, scorned worldly concerns and retreated into the Eastern Desert, where he became the first famous ascetic of the Christian Church, Anthony’s dramatic move reflected the restlessness that overtook some Christians in the 4th centun’ AD when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. This was a disturbing development for many who felt that the church had gained worldly security and wealth at the expense of its spiritual focus. In Egypt, some of these Christians, mostly educated middle-class men, sought to escape the secular world by going to the desert where they could pray in solitude and dedicate their lives to God, not Caesar.