The Bawit Monastery
Following the example of a number of great hermits—the most famous being Saint Anthony (who lived in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries)—hermitages and monasteries sprang up all over the desert fringe along the Nile valley. The Bawit Monastery was founded between 385 and 390 by Saint Apollo, who chose an uninhabited spot on the plain bordering the cliffs of the Libyan desert. The sand-covered ruins of the monastery form a 40-hectare archaeological mound seven to ten meters high. The site was near the fertile Nile valley, where the monks managed a number of estates which provided them with income and victuals. The monastery was not completely isolated from the rest of the world: to the north was the city of el-Ashmunein (the former Hermopolis Magna), and on the opposite bank of the Nile was (Antinoopolis), the capital of Upper Egypt (the Thebaid). The region abounded in hermitages and monasteries, whose memory lives on in the names (beginning with Deir- in Arabic) given to the various sites.
The Bawit Monastery flourished until the 8th or 9th century, then declined with the Islamization of Egypt. We have no record of the exact date of its desertion; the most recent known indication of its activity is an inscription dated to the 10th century.
Mural of St. Menas
The figure, identified by his Greek name, "Agios Menas," is depicted "orant" (kneeling in prayer). The mural was painted in distemper on the wall of a cell at the monastery of Kellia. St. Menas-the martyr for whom the basilica of Abu Mina, a major pilgrimage site in the early years of Christianity, was built-is always depicted with two camels, in reference to traditional accounts of the miraculous choice of his place of burial. The animals are missing here, due to deterioration.
St. Menas
Menas is depicted in the hieratic pose of the "orant," a figure in prayer, but his flowing robes alleviate any sense of rigidity in the drawing. The long-sleeved red tunic with narrow cuffs is belted loosely above the thighs, creating heavy, supple pleats. A light-colored cloak, or pallium, protects the saint's left shoulder, while two braids or cloak fasteners hang down to his waist. The lower part of the body is missing. The paint has flaked off the face, but the thick, short curly hair gives him a youthful appearance. A broad, fully-circular halo completes the portrait of the martyr; the two camels that are traditionally linked to his legend (usually depicted prostrate at his feet) have disappeared.
The decor of a monastic cell
The monastic cells at Kellia were modest, constructed from earth and straw, but nevertheless featured colorful murals painted in distemper: a coat of plaster and whitewash, or plaster and powdered lime, was applied and left to dry on the walls. This provided the support for the paint, a mixture of pigments with a glue or gum binder. The most commonly used pigments were ocher (for the yellows to reds), carbon black (for black), malachite (for green), and calcium carbonate (for white). At Kellia, geometric designs and Christian symbols were more common than figurative scenes such as this.
The monastery at Kellia
The monastery at Kellia was created by St. Anthony during his travels through the Scete desert, sometime around AD 330. Located in the western desert, a few kilometers south-east of the famous basilica dedicated to St. Menas, Kellia featured individual cells (from the Greek word "kellia") rather than the more familiar enclosed complex of monastic buildings. These individual hermitages were scattered, yet sufficiently close to provide a sense of community, unlike the misanthropic cave-dwellings of the early anchorites. Each "cell" (there were up to 1,500 in the seventh century) comprised a one-roomed habitation and an oratory. The cells were affiliated to a church, where the Sunday liturgy was celebrated, and a refectory, where the monks gathered after mass before dispersing until the following Sunday. At around the same time, an early form of cenobitic monasticism (from the Greek "koinos bios," or "community life") was becoming established under the rule of St. Pachomius. The first cenobite architecture produced small "houses" gathered within a boundary wall, together with a church, a hostel, and workshops.
