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First thing to see
When you just enter the monastery,
you will find this church. It is under
the name of St. Anthony and St. Paul.
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Church of St Anthony and St Paul
The "new" church! This church was built in 1936. On the other hand, it is the newest church in the monastery. |
Inside the new church
It is a very nice church with different Italian paintings on the walls and curtains.
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The Ancient Church of St Anthony
The Ancient Church of St. Anthony was built in the 4th century by the early monks. After the death of St. Anthony,
two of his disciples buried him
underneath this church before the
iconostasis to the south side.
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A closer look at the Ancient Church
It is a real ancient church! It contains amazing coptic wall paintings of different saints and holy people from early to mid 1200’s A.D. It also contains icons of early monks at St. Anthony’s monastery.
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Church of St Mark the Ascetic
That is a gorgeous church! It was built in the 15th century, on the same place of his cell. This church contains different Christian icons, mostly coptic, ancient and recent |
About St Mark
St. Mark the Ascetic lived during the 14th century as a monk in St. Anthony’s Monastery. His relics are still kept in the northern part of the church nave.
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Hand made bricks make up these buildings!
Early monks used to do their own bricks for building churches, and their cells. These buildings are the tower and domes of the Ancient church of St. Anthony and the Apostles’ church. |
What a water spring!
It is the main source of water in the monastery, flowing from the time of St. Anthony. The natural tunnel is ten meters deep inside the mountain. It provides the monastery a daily flow of 100 cubic meters of pure water.
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1050 feet high!!!
These are the steps that leads up to the summit of St. Anthony’s cave. St. Anthony lived up there from 312 to 356 A.D. It took them almost 10 years to do these stairs. |
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A little cave
St Anthony lived in this cave till he died at the age of 105 years. He used to leave it very rarely; only to get water from the spring, or something to eat.
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