Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Simeon Complex.. Hidden Gem of Monasteries


Thu 05 Sep 2019 | 02:15 PM
Ahmed Yasser

Ruins of old Christian monastery and the largest ancient coptic architecture complex in Egypt, known as the ”monastery of St. Simeon”, is located in Aswan desert, 700 meters from Nile west opposite to the Philae island.

The gloriously photogenic Monastery of St. Simeon sits between the sand dunes west of the Nile and was missing in the 7th century. The monastery has undergone a great number of rebuilding works including the erection of it’s high towers in the first half of the 11th century.

Simeon Complex

Despite the fact that most of the buildings of the ”Anba-Hatre” complex were destroyed, the monastery generates a great interest among architects and archaeologists.

Inside the monastery courtyard, there are the remains of a fresco depicting ”Christ” enthroned between angels. To the north and west of the church, there are various subsidiary buildings and small grottoes. The eastern part is made up of living quarters.

The lower terrace includes natural rock caves with images of Saints, a church with a baptistery and many rooms for pilgrims. Upper terrace was designed as a residential complex for permanent owners as well as the monastic cells, refectory, kitchen and workshops.

remains of a fresco depicting ”Christ”

The church of the monastery is the most important example of the first domed Egyptian churches as well as pottery furnaces. The southern part of monastery represent a special interest for the study of Aswan ceramics, which was used in Upper Egypt and Nubia during the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic times.

Simeon Complex

There are oil press made of granite and decorated with three crosses located on the upper terrace south of the Tower. It surrounded by desert sands and was built on two levels the lower level of stone and the upper level of mud brick and it used to house as many as 1000 monks.