Wadi El Natrun
Wadi El Natrun
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Wadi El Natrun (
In
). It is one of the three early Christian monastic centers located in the Nitrian Desert of the northwestern Nile Delta.[4] The other two monastic centers are Nitria and Kellia.[4] Scetis, now called Wadi El Natrun, is best known today because its ancient monasteries remain in use, unlike Nitria and Kellia which have only archaeological remains.[4] The desertified valley around Scetis in particular may be called the Desert of Scetis.[5]Fossil discoveries
The area is one of the best known sites containing large numbers of
Geography
Wadi al-Natrun is the common name for a desert valley located west of the Nile Delta, along the El Tahrir markaz, which is about 10 km west of the entrance to Sadat City on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, and about 50 km from Khattabah on the Nile (Rashid Branch), and it falls below the level of the plateau surface surrounding it about 50 meters. The length of this depression ranges between 5, 55 and 60 km, while its average width is 10 km, and its deepest point reaches 24 meters below sea level. The depression is the smallest depression in the Egyptian Western Desert, with an area of about 500 km2. Therefore, it is true that it is a depression and not a valley, because the region is a closed depression that has a beginning and an end, and it has no source, estuary or tributaries, so the launch of the word "Wadi" on the depression is not topographically correct.[7]
The Wadi contains 12 lakes, the total surface area of which is 10 km square and their average depth is only 2 m. The color of these lakes is reddish blue because its water is saturated with the Natron salt.[8]
History
Ancient history
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sḫt ḥmꜣwt[9] in hieroglyphs | ||||||||||
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Era: 1st Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BC) | ||||||||||
Natron valley is first attested in the story of the
The importance of the Natrun valley dates back to the Pharaonic era, as the
As for the religious significance of Wadi al-Natrun, there are many discoveries that indicate that this area was considered sacred as early as year 2000 BC at the very least. Among these discoveries is a bust of black granite dating back to the era of the Seventeenth Dynasty of the Pharaohs, and there is also a granite gate and stones from the lintel of a door bearing cartridges for King Amenemhat I, in a place called the backbone.[12]
Economic history
The alkali lakes of the Natron Valley provided the Ancient Egyptians with the sodium bicarbonate used in mummification and in Egyptian faience, and later by the Romans as a flux for glass making.
The Egyptian Salt and Soda Company Railway was built at the end of the 19th century as a 33 miles (54 km) long narrow gauge railway with a gauge of 750 mm, which attracted the first tourists to the wadi.
Monastic history
The desolate region became one of Christianity's most sacred areas. The
Saint
Invasion of Scetis
Nitria and Kellia were eventually abandoned in the 7th and 9th centuries respectively, but Scetis continued throughout the Medieval period.[4] Although some of the individual monasteries were eventually abandoned or destroyed, four have remained in use to the present day:[4]
Some of the most renowned saints of the region include the various
To this day Wadi El Natrun remains the most important center of Coptic monasticism.[17]
Saint-Exupéry's plane crash
The environs of Wadi Natrun have been identified as the likely site of where the plane of French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry crashed on December 30, 1935. After miraculously surviving the crash, he and his plane's mechanic nearly died of thirst before being rescued by a nomad. Saint-Exupéry documented his experience in his book Wind, Sand and Stars.[18] The event is thought to have inspired his most famous work, The Little Prince.
Gallery
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Scetes, Egypt
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Monastery of Saint Pishoy, Scetes, Egypt
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Monastery of Saint Pishoy, Scetes, Egypt
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Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great, Scetes, Egypt
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Frescos at theSyrian Monastery, Scetes, Egypt
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Frescos at the Syrian Monastery, Scetes, Egypt
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Naba' El-Hamra Lake
See also
References
- ^ a b "Wadi an-Natrun (Markaz, Egypt) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location". citypopulation.de. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
- ^ WĀDĪ NAṬRŪN in: Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
- .
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Roger S. Bagnall, etc. Egypt from Alexander to the early Christians: An Archaeological and Historical Guide, Getty Publications, 2004. pp. 108–112
- ISBN 9780227679319.
- ^ Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters - Paleontology in the Greek and Roman Times, 2000.
- ^ جمال حمدان، مرجع سابق، صـ: 416.
- ^ جمال حمدان، مرجع سابق، صـ: 420.
- ^ a b Gauthier, Henri (1928). Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques Vol. 5. p. 56.
- ^ Butler, Alfred Joshua (1884). The ancient Coptic churches of Egypt. University of Michigan. Oxford, Clarendon press. p. 288.
- ^ نيفين عبد الجواد، أديرة وادي النطرون، الهيئة المصرية العامة للكتاب، القاهرة، 2007، صـ: 27.
- ^ Meinardus, (Otto F.A), Monks and Moasteries of
- Hugh G. Evelyn-White, "The Egyptian Expedition 1916–1919: IV. The Monasteries of the Wadi Natrun" The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 15.7, Part 2: The Egyptian Expedition 1916–1919 [July 1920):34–39] p 34; Evelyn White's article gives a brief overview of Wadi Natrun from literary sources.
- ^ S2CID 162955580.
- ^ OCLC 5170172.
- ISBN 9781442622791, retrieved 2022-03-27
- ^ Johanna Pink, Geschichte Ägyptens – Von der Spätantike bis zur Gegenwart, C.H. Beck, 2014 p. 20
- ^ Saint-Exupéry, A. de. 1939. Terre des hommes (English title: Wind, Sand and Stars). Paris.
Further reading
- M. Cappozzo, I monasteri del deserto di Scete, Todi 2009 (Tau Editore).
External links
- The monasteries of the Arab Desert and Wadi Natrun UNESCO World Heritage Centre 1992–2012