• In the morning, traveling from your hotel, with breakfast box, in an air-conditioned vehicle to get to the site of the monasteries (about 150 km from Cairo or 260 km from Hurghada or Safaga) on the Red Sea.
• When we get there, we start our holy visit of the monastery of Saint-Antoine. Saint-Anthony was born in the year 251 AD. According to tradition, God advised him, in his dreams, to get rid of his material goods to go and live alone in the desert. His retirement brought him here where he found a spring of water and a cave for shelter. Saint-Antoine would be the founder of monastic life and his monastery is the first in the world. Today, every evening, a monk climbs the 1,200 steps leading to the cave to say mass.
• Standing out from a mountainous and desert environment where only palm trees and olive trees grow, this monastery built in earth and stone is surprising. You can admire an old pulley elevator, a mill, a keep and a church with its beautiful frescoes. You can also climb the 1200 steps: the colors of the desert are sublime and captivating, but it’s a question of muscles…!