Assuit

It is -Assuit- surrounded by a wall modelled after the wall of Jerusalem. For Egypt’s Coptic Christians, a pilgrimage to this monastery is equal to a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Tradition relates that the Holy Family stayed here for six months and five days, and that this is where Jesus returned after his resurrection and consecrated an altar in order to fulfil the prophecy in Isaiah 19:19 “in that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt”. This was the point furthest south in their journey and their longest stay in one place in Egypt. 

The holiest place in the monastery is the Church of the Holy Virgin. It is said that the altar was consecrated in the first century AD, which would make it the first church in the world. It has a collection of icons from the 18th and 19th centuries.  In 1880 and 1964, the monastery constructed two more churches and dedicated them to the Holy Virgin. Dayr al-Muharraq also has a century-old episcopal palace and a keep dating from the 6th century.