a window of Egypt

The Saint Antoine convent, which is to 15 km of Zaafarana, on Red Sea, is the most ancient of Egypt, the one which saw the birth of the monastic life. It is a small town surrounded with a wall 12 metres high, on a surface about 10 hectares.
It is dedicated to the father of the monachisme, Antoine le Grand, been born at about the year 250 in a city of Upper Egypt. After Saint Marc who spread the Christianity in Egypt, it is Saint Antoine who based first hermitages. It is the assistant to the poor men and to the persecuted, the defender against the fire, the plague and the animals.
It is his followers who based the convent and they buried him there. The first buildings date from the III-th century and were in all the times reshaped and embellished.

The Saint Antoine convent was opened to the public after a first phase of works of restoration. During three years, a quite particular care was brought to the restoration of frescoes and icons of a very big beauty belonging to four churches, to fortress and to wall of the convent.
A thick coat of dust and soot covered these murals which, besides, were very damaged during the pursuit of the Copts (Christians of Egypt) by Romans. The centuries, the bad weather and the other factors of erosion plunged these forgotten treasures. works of restoration

There are Italian restorers - also loaded with the renovation of Nefertari's grave in the Valley of the Queens - that mirror in work the process of restoration.

These murals were realized by two different schools: the first goes back up to the VII-th century, the second date of the beginning of the XIII-th century. The most ancient school was steered by a master named Théodore then by masters influenced by the Byzantine and the Crusaders of Cyprus. The illustrations of martyrs' life establish the main subjects of these frescoes.
Most of these heroes of the first age are represented on horseback. Although the used techniques are different, both schools liked the profusion of colours.
The frescoes of the church are, this day, the most beautiful inherited from the Coptic era.



	The Saint Antoine convent The Saint Antoine convent, which is to 15 km of Zaafarana, on Red Sea, is the most ancient of Egypt, the one which saw the birth of the monastic life. It is a small town surrounded with a wall 12 metres high, on a surface about 10 hectares. It is dedicated to the father of the monachisme, Antoine le Grand, been born at about the year 250 in a city of Upper Egypt. After Saint Marc who spread the Christianity in Egypt, it is Saint Antoine who based first hermitages. It is the assistant to the poor men and to the persecuted, the defender against the fire, the plague and the animals. It is his followers who based the convent and they buried him there. The first buildings date from the III-th century and were in all the times reshaped and embellished. The Saint Antoine convent was opened to the public after a first phase of works of restoration. During three years, a quite particular care was brought to the restoration of frescoes and icons of a very big beauty belonging to four churches, to fortress and to wall of the convent. A thick coat of dust and soot covered these murals which, besides, were very damaged during the pursuit of the Copts (Christians of Egypt) by Romans. The centuries, the bad weather and the other factors of erosion plunged these forgotten treasures. There are Italian restorers - also loaded with the renovation of Nefertari's grave in the Valley of the Queens - that mirror in work the process of restoration. These murals were realized by two different schools: the first goes back up to the VII-th century, the second date of the beginning of the XIII-th century. The most ancient school was steered by a master named Théodore then by masters influenced by the Byzantine and the Crusaders of Cyprus. The illustrations of martyrs' life establish the main subjects of these frescoes. Most of these heroes of the first age are represented on horseback. Although the used techniques are different, both schools liked the profusion of colours. The frescoes of the church are, this day, the most beautiful inherited from the Coptic era.

Evocation of a very beautiful work of Orientalist art Edward William Lane (1801-1876) was a famous draftsman and an artist fascinated for the Egyptians of his time, their language and their way of life as the tendency was mainly the discovery of Pharaonic Egypt. "Description of Egypt" was never published during its finish, in 1831. The reasons remain dark. It was a great disappointment for Lane because this book is the history of a passion, a fate: that of its first meeting with Egypt. When he lands in Alexandria, in 1825, it is the blow of lightning. He dashes body and soul into this oriental adventure but with the concern to merge among the Egyptians, to adopt their language, their customs, their clothes and to understand their literature. It is the quest that Lane will pursue all his life. This unpublished work contains two approaches: the one was dedicated to the Egyptology with magnificent illustrations of monuments, and the other, major, which concerns the contemporary society, real study of the ways of life, the prosperity of every city and village, clothing differences... In "Description of Egypt", Edward Lane demonstrates his illustrator's talent, his taste for the Egyptian and Islamic art and also for the experiment of new technologies as those made by the help of the camera lucida", one of the first models of cameras. "Description of Egypt": an early work full of ideal.

		Edward William Lane, "Description of Egypt", Jason Thompson, The American University in Cairo Press 2000

Archives Discovering Marsa Matruh (ancient Ammonia, or Paraetonium, in Graeco-Roman times)