Nitria (monastic site)

With Nitria is an Egyptian Christian hermit settlement in the western part of the Nile delta, about 70 km south-east of Alexandria and 15 km south of Damanhur, respectively.

The early Christian writers Palladio (ca. 364-430 ) speaks of the mountain Nitria, although it may only be a small increase or dune above the flat plain of the Nile Delta. The Nitria lay at the edge of the former cultivated land in the vicinity of a channel between the Mareotissee and the western Rosetta branch of the Nile on a Natron, after which it was named. Today she is in the midst of agriculturally used and irrigated area near the present village of Al Barnuji and can be archaeologically proven difficult. In addition to the Sketis and kellia ( cells desert ) is the Nitria one of the areas in the Sahara foothills southwest of the Nile Delta between Alexandria and Giza, where one of the basic forms of Christian monasticism developed in the first half of the 4th century, that of the hermit community. Moved here following the example of Saint Anthony the Christians (especially from the nearby city of Alexandria ) back to renounce the world in asceticism.

The monastic settlement was Nitria to 325/30 AD by the student Anthony Amun (also: Ammon 288-356 ) was founded. She quickly became known and grew until the end of the 4th century to several thousand inhabitants, including not only monks but also merchants and bankers, at. The Nitria was because of their proximity to Alexandria and with the discovery of the new Christian way of life, monasticism, an attraction for ancient travelers who wanted to visit for religious reasons and from the strange sensation funny monastic settlement. Therefore Amun already 338 pulled about 15 km further south into the desert and founded there with a couple of brothers who kellia. At the entrance to Nitria were the three famous palm of Nitria. At each of these palm trees hung a whip with which sinners and criminals, each clutching palm, were flogged; at the first palm the monks who had sinned against their brethren knew at the second palm robbers and thieves and at the third Palme strangers who do not behave. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the population declined due to many nomadic raids, the mid-7th century, the settlement was abandoned altogether.