The Nitrian Desert is a
desert
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...
region in northwestern
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, lying between
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
and
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
west of the
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...
. It is known for its history of
Christian monasticism
Christian monasticism is a religious way of life of Christians who live Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, m ...
.
["Nitrian Desert", in F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds., ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'', 3rd rev. ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005, online 2009).]
There were three monastic centres in the Nitrian Desert in
Late Antiquity
Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
. Around 330,
Macarius the Egyptian established a monastic colony in the
Wadi El Natrun
Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; , "measure of the hearts") is a Depression (geology), depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron- ...
(Scetis), far from cultivable land. In the 330s,
Saint Amun founded
Nitria, only southeast of Alexandria, using the rules of
Saint Anthony. He founded a second centre,
Kellia, on Anthony's suggestion, deeper into the desert. Kellia has been the object of scientific excavations.
[Janet Timbie, "Egypt", in William M. Johnston and Christopher Kleinhenz, eds., ''Encyclopedia of Monasticism'' (Routledge, 2015), pp. 432–435.] Only Scetis in the Wadi El Natrun remains a monastic site today.
[Roger S. Bagnall and Dominic W. Rathbone, eds., ''Egypt from Alexander to the Early Christians: An Archaeological and Historical Guide'' (Getty Publications, 2004)]
pg. 108–115
(map on p. 109).
See also
*
Desert Fathers
The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Wadi El Natrun, then known as ''Skete'', in Roman Egypt, beginning around the Christianity in the ante-Nicene period, third century. The ''Sayings of the Dese ...
*
Or of Nitria
*
Desert of Mount Athos
*
Pachomian monasteries
References
{{coord, 30.42, 30.14, display=title
Deserts of Egypt
*