Wadi El Natrun is a valley located in Beheira Governorate, Egypt, including a town with the same name. The name refers to the presence of eight different lakes in the region that produce natron salt.
The history of Wadi el Natrun, or Valley of Salt, can be traced to Pharaonic times. The region is rich in nitrate, which the ancient Egyptians extracted for their embalming process.
Wadi Natrun (Wadi al-Natrun, Wadi el-Natrun, Wadi el-Natroun) is a northwesterly oriented desert depression about 60 kilometers long located in the Western Desert near the delta about 90 kilometers northwest of Cairo. Wadi el-Natrun lies some 23 meters below sea level, and lakes fed from the water table of the Nile dot the landscape.
While the Wadi Natrun was mined for Natrun though much of Pharaonic history, its main importance and indeed, its fame today is as Egypt's most important Christian monastic center, a prime attraction for Christian religious tourists who come to the holy land. There is good reason for this. The monasteries at Wadi Natrun and the surrounding region constitute some of the earliest, if not the earliest, Christian monasteries in the world. The district containing these monasteries has been known by many names, often derived from different languages, including Scetis, Scythis, al-Isqit (al-Askit), Shiet, Shihat (Shihet), Scitium and Wadi Habib.
The history of the Wadi and its importance to Coptic Christians dates back to the 4th century AD. Christianity reached the area with St. Macarius the Great who retreated there in c.330, at a time when monastic life was not yet developed. During this period, holy men were hermits, living outside social structures. However, the reputation of St. Macarius soon attracted followers, who built cells nearby and thus began a loose confederation of monastic communities. Many of these early settlers had already followed the Christian hermit lifestyle in nearby places such as Nitria. Hence, Scetis was less a place of innovation than a locus of consolidation.
The Nitrian Desert is sometimes used to mean the entire region where the monasteries are located. It can also more specifically refer to the immediate area around Nitria and Kellia, with the region around Wadi El Natrun then more specifically called the Scetis Desert.
In the Roman period, from about 30 B.C. to about A.D. 359, Wadi el-Natrun was probably one of the main centers of the glass industry in Egypt. In this district, the essential materials for glassmaking processes, mainly silica and natron, were and are still quite abundant. Two kinds of crucibles were in use: fritting and melting.
The first kind was used for fritting the raw materials of glass to produce glass frit bocks. Such fritting crucibles had a rectangular form which is not usually encountered in other places. Probably this was intended to facilitate the transport of the glass frit blocks produced to glass factories in different places where raw materials were not available. Dimensions for two crucibles are proposed. The body texture is coarse, highly porous and almost loose. These features were intended by the ancient glassmaker to release the block easily by fracturing the crucible, which was thus used only once. The chemical composition is distinguished by a high content of iron oxide, lime, magnesia and alkalis, thus decreasing the resistance of the crucible to corrosion. The mineralogical composition is mainly: alpha quartz, albite, oligoclase, andesine, diopside, augite and a small amount of anorthoclase and other trace minerals. The crucible material has been found to have been originally made by mixing mud with sand to which an amount of chopped straw was added; after sun-drying the crucible was baked before use. The temperature employed in this process never exceeded 1100°C since, under prolonged heating, the crucible material fuses in the range 1150-1200°C.
Explore Wadi El Natrun Monastery Tour from Cairo
Flying Carpet Tours guide will pick you up from your hotel in Cairo, drive by air-conditioned van to Wadi El Natrun Monastery approx 100 km to the north west of Cairo. Wadi El Natrun is very important for the Coptic Christianity as it is considered the birthplace of Christian Monasticism in the 4th century. Wadi El Natrun once contained 50 monasteries, only four survived along the years. Start your tour exploring Deir EL Baramous, the furthest of all. Beguile your eyes between Deir Anba Bishoy, the most important monastery in Egypt where Anba Bishoy lived and died, move to explore Deir El Suryani Monastery which is considered the smallest between the four monasteries, at the end of your tour Flying Carpet Tours guide will escort you back to your hotel in Cairo.
Included
• Pick up and drop off to your hotel in Cairo
• Air-conditioned Van Cairo / Wadi Natrun / Cairo
• Entrance fees to the above mentioned sites
• All transfers in Cairo and Wadi Natrun by air-conditioned Van
• Bottle of Mineral Water during your Excursion
• English speaking guide at the sites mentioned above
• All service charges and taxes
Excluded
• Visa to Egypt
• Any optional tours required
• Tipping
For more info about Wadi El Natrun Monastery Tour from Cairo:
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