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Location of Wadi El Natrun on the map of Egypt. Image created using Google Maps.

Wadi El Natrun is a town in Al Buhayrah Governorate, Egypt. In Arabic, its name translates into the Nitrate Valley due to the presence of eight different nitrate lakes in the region. In Coptic the region was known as Shee-Hyt, meaning the balance of the hearts or the measure of the hearts. In Greek it is known as Scetes, which means the ascetics. In Christian literature, the region is also referred to as the Nitrian Desert. In ancient times, natron was mined here for use in Egyptian burial rites. It is believed that the Holy family visited Wadi El Natrun during their flight into Egypt.

The region of Wadi El Natrun was and remains one of the most sacred regions in Christianity. Between the 3rd century and 7th century A.D., the region attracted hundreds of thousands of people from the world over to join the hundreds of monasteries of the Nitrian Desert. Many anchorites, hermits and monks lived in the desert and the hills around the region. The solitude of the Nitrian Desert attracted these people because they saw in the privations of the desert a means of learning stoic self-discipline (asceticism). Thus, these individuals believed that desert life would teach them to eschew the things of this world and allow them to follow God's call in a more deliberate and individual way.

Some of the most renowned saints of the region include the various Desert Fathers, as well as Saint Amun, Saint Arsenius, Saint John the Dwarf, Saint Macarius of Egypt, Saint Macarius of Alexandria, Saint Moses the Black, Saint Pishoy, and Saint Samuel the Confessor.

The importance of the region declined with the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 A.D. Many of the monasteries were destroyed and looted by the Thieves. Today only four monasteries remain in the region, all dating from the fourth century A.D.:

• The Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great
• The Paromeos Monastery
• The Monastery of Saint Pishoy
• The Syrian Monastery

• Desert Fathers
• Skete

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Wadi El Natrun

Coordinates: 30°25′N, 30°20′E