ST. MENAS MONASTERY

According to Coptic tradition, the camels carrying the remains of Menas, one of the Desert Fathers, stopped here. The monastery, built in the early days of monasticism, was active between the^5th and ^7th centuries. An interesting complex of ruins includes the basilica, the martyrium containing the saint's remains, and the baptistery where pilgrims came to draw so-called miraculous water, which they kept in terracotta flasks bearing the effigy of Menas, such as can still be seen in the same Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria.