Editor in Chief
Youssef Sidhom
Watani
عربى English French
  • News
    • Accidents
    • Crime
    • Diplomatic briefcase
    • NewsLine
    • Outside Cairo
    • Special Occasions
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • International media
    • Reader`s Corner
    • Opinion
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • International Politics
    • Islamisation Politics
    • National Affairs
    • Parliament
    • Politics
    • Protests
    • Rights
    • Terrorism
  • Culture
    • Antiquity
    • Art
    • Books
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Egyptology
    • Festivals
    • Films
    • Heritage
    • Islamisation Culture
    • Media
    • Museums
    • Music
    • TV
  • Coptic
    • Church Affairs
    • Coptic Affairs
    • Coptic Culture
    • Copts in the Media
    • Coptology
    • Copts Abroad
    • Religious
      • P. Shenouda: Bible Study
    • Sectarian
    • Inter-religious
  • Features
    • Counselling Corner
    • features
    • Economy
      • Business
    • Education
    • Social Issues
      • Behaviour
      • Mothers Day
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Humour
    • In memorial
    • Interviews
    • Nile
    • Profile
    • Special needs
    • Sports
    • Technology
    • Tourism
    • Wars
    • Women
    • Youth
  • Watani Special Features
    • Egypt – Arab Spring
      • 25 January Revolution
      • 25 Jan revolution, one year on
      • Egypt post-30 June
    • Watani Milestones
      • 10 years Watani International
      • Watani Jubilee
    • Pope Shenouda
    • Pope Tawadros
    • Watani Forum
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Accidents
    • Crime
    • Diplomatic briefcase
    • NewsLine
    • Outside Cairo
    • Special Occasions
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • International media
    • Reader`s Corner
    • Opinion
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • International Politics
    • Islamisation Politics
    • National Affairs
    • Parliament
    • Politics
    • Protests
    • Rights
    • Terrorism
  • Culture
    • Antiquity
    • Art
    • Books
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Egyptology
    • Festivals
    • Films
    • Heritage
    • Islamisation Culture
    • Media
    • Museums
    • Music
    • TV
  • Coptic
    • Church Affairs
    • Coptic Affairs
    • Coptic Culture
    • Copts in the Media
    • Coptology
    • Copts Abroad
    • Religious
      • P. Shenouda: Bible Study
    • Sectarian
    • Inter-religious
  • Features
    • Counselling Corner
    • features
    • Economy
      • Business
    • Education
    • Social Issues
      • Behaviour
      • Mothers Day
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Humour
    • In memorial
    • Interviews
    • Nile
    • Profile
    • Special needs
    • Sports
    • Technology
    • Tourism
    • Wars
    • Women
    • Youth
  • Watani Special Features
    • Egypt – Arab Spring
      • 25 January Revolution
      • 25 Jan revolution, one year on
      • Egypt post-30 June
    • Watani Milestones
      • 10 years Watani International
      • Watani Jubilee
    • Pope Shenouda
    • Pope Tawadros
    • Watani Forum
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Watani
ع Fr

Road crosses Wadi al-Rayan national park and St Macarius monastery

8 October, 2014 - (12:22 AM)
0 0

Lillian Nabil

Road crosses Wadi al-Rayan national park and St Macarius monastery
11
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Khled Fahmy denied that any sectarian problem might be looming on the horizon because of the alleged approval by the Roads and Bridges Authority of a new road in Fayoum, some 150km southwest of Cairo. The road, which should link the south of Fayoum with the oases in the Western Desert, has been designed to go through the monastery of St Macarius in Wadi al-Rayan, so that it effectively divides the monastery into two halves. The monks have accordingly sent SOS pleas to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab to intervene and preserve the unity of the monastery.

Alternative routes
Father Daoud, spokesman for the monastery, told Watani that the approval was issued last month and that work is scheduled to begin right after Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of the sacrifice which ends next Tuesday, 7 October. Fr Daoud insists that there are alternative routes which the road can follow; he actually confirms that the monastery has provided the relevant authorities with proposals of two alternative routes that are shorter and can be less costly.
Furthermore, he says, the projected road passes through the national park of Wadi al-Rayan which includes within its boundary the UNESCO World Heritage Site Wadi al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales). The Wadi Hitan is famous the hundreds of fossils of the earliest forms of whales. How could the Ministry of the Environment, which is in charge of national parks, have approved the new road? Fr Daoud asks.
Mr Fahmy, who was on a visit to the monastery this morning, told Watani that the matter of the new road was being debated between the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Transport on one hand and the monastery on the other. He said that alternative routes were being considered, since a road that traverses the park protected area may be harmful to the environment and would, furthermore, involve very high costs to build. As to talk of the road dividing the monastery in half, Mr Fahmy said, that was a gross exaggeration. Yet even so, the Ministry does not wish for any conflict with the monks, he said. “I assure you,” he said, “that the matter has absolutely no sectarian undertones, and will be resolved to the satisfaction of every party involved. The priority will be public interest.”

Third century caves
The St Macarius monastery in Wadi al-Rayan is the site of mountain caves that were used by Christian hermits as far back as the third century. The cave walls still carry Christian inscriptions from those times. In modern times, monks started re-inhabiting these caves in 1960 and until 1969 when they were ordered by Pope Kyrillos VI to leave and go restore and develop St Macarius Monastery in the Western Desert. In 1998, another group of monks headed by Fr Eleisha went to Wadi Rayan for a monastic revival there. Even though their relationship with the mother Coptic Orthodox Church has been bumpy, their population grew; they built a church, and cultivated a plot of land near the caves. Conflict erupted between the monks and the Environment Ministry which, in 2011, accused the monks of encroaching on the national park of Wadi al-Rayan because they built a wall to protect them from the all-too-frequent attacks by local Bedouin during the security breakup that followed the Arab Spring uprising in January 2011. The conflict was resolved in 2013 by the government sanctioning the building of the wall and the monks signing a document acknowledging that the grounds were government property.

Watani International
7 October 2014

Comments

comments

Tags: ChurchCoptic CultureEgyptRoadSt Macarius monasteryWadi al-Rayan

Related Posts

Execution of killer of eight Copts and a policeman at Helwan church in 2017
main

Execution of killer of eight Copts and a policeman at Helwan church in 2017

December 10, 2019
Missing Coptic woman back home
Coptic Affairs

Missing Coptic woman back home

November 28, 2019
The splendid opera house Ismail built: 150 years on
features

The splendid opera house Ismail built: 150 years on

November 19, 2019
Suez Canal: A story to cherish
features

Suez Canal: A story to cherish

November 17, 2019
Cabinet approves legalisation of 11th batch of churches
main

Cabinet approves legalisation of 11th batch of churches

October 23, 2019
Cabinet approves legalisation of 10th batch of churches
main

Cabinet approves legalisation of 10th batch of churches

September 24, 2019

Editorial

Heliopolis sacrificed for New Capital?

More

MOST READ

For 28 years in Port Said: Holy Virgin icon still drips miraculous oil
Coptic Affairs

For 28 years in Port Said: Holy Virgin icon still drips miraculous oil

February 26, 2018
0

This February 2018 marks the 28th year in succession since miraculous oil started dripping from a large modern paper icon...

Read more
Popes Francis and Tawadros agree one Easter for all

Popes Francis and Tawadros agree one Easter for all

October 25, 2015
Anba Epiphanius, Abbot of St Macarius’s, murdered

Anba Epiphanius, Abbot of St Macarius’s, murdered

July 29, 2018
Coptic villagers hold funeral in street while church remains closed

Coptic villagers hold funeral in street while church remains closed

February 11, 2019
Police crime shocks, angers Egyptians

Police crime shocks, angers Egyptians

November 23, 2016

Features

Egyptian women champions in EU Egypt photography competition
Diplomatic briefcase

Egyptian women champions in EU Egypt photography competition

December 10, 2019
0

The European Union (EU) in Egypt announced the results of its 12th annual photography competition on 8 December in Cairo....

Read more
Watani started as an Egyptian weekly Sunday newspaper published in Cairo. The word Watani is Arabic for “My Homeland”. The paper was founded in 1958 by the prominent Copt Antoun Sidhom (1915 – 1995), who strove for the establishment of a civil, democratic society in Egypt, where all Egyptians would enjoy full citizenship rights regardless of their religious denomination. To this day when Watani is published as a weekly paper and an online news site, the objective remains the same. Those in charge of Watani view this role as a patriotic all-Egyptian vocation. Special attention is given to shedding light on Coptic culture and tradition as authentically Egyptian, this being a topic largely disregarded or little-understood by Egypt’s media. Watani is deeply dedicated to offer its readers high quality, extensive, objective, credible and well-researched media coverage, with special focus on Coptic issues, culture, heritage, and contribution to Egyptian society.
-----------------------------------------------------------

27 Abdel Khalek Tharwat st, Downtown, Abdeen,Cairo

00202-23927201

00202-23935946

 [email protected]

      

categories

  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Egypt – Arab Spring
  • Coptic Affairs
  • Features
  • Watani Special Features

Recent Posts

  • 309 ancient antiquity pieces moved to GEM
  • 309 ancient antiquity pieces moved to GEM
  • Egyptian women champions in EU Egypt photography competition
  • Execution of killer of eight Copts and a policeman at Helwan church in 2017
  • 30 years on Pope Shenouda III Youth Centre in Sydney: “No youth … no future”
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Egypt – Arab Spring
  • Coptic Affairs
  • Features
  • Watani Special Features

Powered BY 3A Digital.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Accidents
    • Crime
    • Diplomatic briefcase
    • NewsLine
    • Outside Cairo
    • Special Occasions
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • International media
    • Reader`s Corner
    • Opinion
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • International Politics
    • Islamisation Politics
    • National Affairs
    • Parliament
    • Politics
    • Protests
    • Rights
    • Terrorism
  • Culture
    • Antiquity
    • Art
    • Books
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Egyptology
    • Festivals
    • Films
    • Heritage
    • Islamisation Culture
    • Media
    • Museums
    • Music
    • TV
  • Coptic
    • Church Affairs
    • Coptic Affairs
    • Coptic Culture
    • Copts in the Media
    • Coptology
    • Copts Abroad
    • Religious
      • P. Shenouda: Bible Study
    • Sectarian
    • Inter-religious
  • Features
    • Counselling Corner
    • features
    • Economy
      • Business
    • Education
    • Social Issues
      • Behaviour
      • Mothers Day
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Humour
    • In memorial
    • Interviews
    • Nile
    • Profile
    • Special needs
    • Sports
    • Technology
    • Tourism
    • Wars
    • Women
    • Youth
  • Watani Special Features
    • Egypt – Arab Spring
      • 25 January Revolution
      • 25 Jan revolution, one year on
      • Egypt post-30 June
    • Watani Milestones
      • 10 years Watani International
      • Watani Jubilee
    • Pope Shenouda
    • Pope Tawadros
    • Watani Forum

Powered BY 3A Digital.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In