Ministry of Antiquities released a new archive to identify stages of the holy family in Egypt.
The list was issued in both English and Arabic languages under the title of “Stations from the Holy Family’s Journey in Egypt”.
Dr. Mohamed Abdel Latif, professor of Islamic monuments at Mansoura University and the project’s supervisor, stated that it was a collaborative work with a team of researchers at the ministry of antiquities.
“Dr. Ahmed Al-Nemr and Professor Amr abd El Karim were the two members in the team,” he added.
He stressed that the project was launched in line with the ministry’s plan to simply document all the journey’s stages before being included in UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The writing style is very interesting and easy as it focuses on the geographic sites visited.
Some of these sites are the monasteries in Wadi Natrun, the Virgin’s Tree, Church of Abu Sirja, Virgin Mary Church in Minya governorate and Deir el-Muharraq in Asyut governorate.
Abdellatif stated that the family didn’t stay at one single place in Egypt but moved from Sinai to Nile Delta then reached Upper Egypt and many other cities.
According to religious and historical references, the journey consists of 3 stages; the first one was to cities of “Arish, Faramah, Tel Basta, Mostorod, Belbeis, Samannoud, Sakha, and Wadi El Natroun”
The second stage focused on Matria, Babylonian in Ancient Egypt, Memph and Maadi.
The third and last phase was visits to El Bahnasa, Mount El Tayer, El Ashmounin, Phyllis, Qusakam, Mir, Mount Qusakam and Mount Drenka.
The family stayed in every city from one week to more than a month and the longest duration was spent at Mount Qusakam; as they spent 185 days there.
They stayed in Egypt for 4 years till the death of King Herod.
One great thing is that the list includes maps to make it easier for readers to understand the trip’s sequence.
Abdel Latif pointed out that this archive will help in promoting the Journey locally and internationally.
Contributed by Salma Yassin
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