This city was named in honor of the saint, Menas of Alexandria, who was martyred around 300 A.D. It is said that he chose his burial place by instructing his followers to tie his body to two camels, which wandered until they reached the site in the Mariut Desert.
Thebes was the capital of Egypt during the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms. It began to figure in the recorded history of Egypt during the Old Kingdom (2575-2134 BC). Tombs dating from the 6th Dynasty (2323-2152 BC) of Egyptian kings have been discovered in the original necropolis, which is on the west side of the Nile. It was the city of the god Amon, with temples and palaces at Karnak and Luxor, and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.
The Orthodox Monastery of St Catherine stands at the foot of the Mount Horeb of the Old Testament, where Moses received the Tablets of the Law.
Located in the Western Desert of Egypt, Wadi Al-Hitan contains fossil remains of the earliest, and now extinct, suborder of whales, the archaeoceti. These fossils demonstrate a major evolutionary stage as the whales transitioned from a land-based animal to an ocean-going mammal.
Lynn Garry Salmon <>{
Last Updated: June 12, 2023
