A walled community in the Eastern Desert, continuously inhabited since the fourth century.
Every monastery in the world descends from what happened here. Anthony withdrew into the Eastern Desert around AD 270 to live alone; others followed to live near him; and the arrangement that resulted — a community of solitaries under a rule — became the model that spread to Europe and everywhere else.
The monastery founded after his death has been inhabited more or less continuously since, which makes it plausibly the oldest continuously occupied monastery on earth. It sits at the foot of a cliff about 150 km from Hurghada, walled, with springs, gardens, a bakery and mills inside.
The medieval wall paintings in the old church were covered by centuries of soot and lamp black and were cleaned in a long conservation project ending in 2005. What emerged is among the finest Coptic painting anywhere — and it looked like nothing at all thirty years ago.
The monastery founded after his death has been inhabited more or less continuously since, which makes it plausibly the oldest continuously occupied monastery on earth.
Anthony's own cave is a steep climb of about 1,150 steps up the cliff behind. It takes an hour or so and the view across the desert from it explains the appeal of the place better than any account. Cover shoulders and knees, and be aware the monastery closes to visitors during major fasts.
