Abu Mena*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Egypt
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iv
Reference	90
Region†	Arab States
Inscription History
Inscription	1979  (3rd Session)
Endangered	2001-
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

Abu Mena (also Abu Mina) was a town, monastery complex and Christian pilgrimage center in Late Antique Egypt, about 45 km southwest of Alexandria. Its remains were designated a World Heritage Site in 1979. There are very few standing remains, but the foundations of most major buildings, such as the great basilica, are easily discernable. A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... As of 2006, there are a total of 830 World Heritage Sites located in 138 State Parties. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Egypt. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Arab world. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... These are thirty sites which the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has decided to include on a list of World Heritage Sites in danger; this list also shows the year in which the World Heritage committee added the site to this list. ... Monastery of St. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... This article is about the religious or spiritual journey. ... Late Antiquity is a rough periodization (c. ... This article is about the city in Egypt. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... St. ...

Recent agricultural efforts in the area have led to a significant rise in the water table, which has caused a number of the site's buildings to collapse or become unstable. The site was added to the list of threatened World Heritage Sites in 2001. Cross section showing the water table varying with surface topography as well as a perched water table The water table or phreatic surface is the surface where the water pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure. ... These are thirty sites which the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has decided to include on a list of World Heritage Sites in danger; this list also shows the year in which the World Heritage committee added the site to this list. ...

History

Menas of Alexandria was martyred in the late 3rd or early 4th century (see Early Christianity). Various 5th-century and later accounts give slightly differing versions of his burial and the subsequent founding of his church. The essential elements are that his body was taken from Alexandria on a camel, which was led into the desert beyond Lake Mareotis. At some point, the camel refused to continue walking, despite all efforts to goad it. This was taken as a sign of divine will, and the body's attendants buried it on that spot. Coptic icon of St Menas the Wonder-worker St. ... For other uses, see Martyr (disambiguation). ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      The term Early Christianity... For other uses, see Camel (disambiguation). ... Lake Mariout (also spelled Maryut or Mariut) is a salt lake of about 250 square km in northern Egypt. ...

Christ and Saint Menas in a 6th-century Egyptian icon

Most versions of the story state that the location of the tomb was then forgotten until its miraculous rediscovery by a local shepherd. From the Ethiopian Synaxarium (E.A.W. Budge, trans.): Image File history File links Menas. ... Image File history File links Menas. ... Synaxarium, Synaxarion, Synexarium, Synexarion, pl. ... E. A. Wallis Budge in his office at the British Museum around the turn of the century. ...

And God wished to reveal the [place of the] body of Saint Mînâs. And there was in that desert a certain shepherd, and one day a sheep which was suffering from the disease of the scab went to that place, and dipped himself in the water of the little spring which was near the place, and he rolled about in it and was healed straightway. And when the shepherd saw this thing, and understood the miracle, he marvelled exceedingly and was astonished. And [afterwards he used to take some of the dust from that shrine, and mix it with water, and rub it on the sheep, and if they were ill with the scab, they were straightway healed thereby. And this he used to do at all times, and he healed all the sick who came to him by this means.

Word of the shepherd's healing powers spread rapidly. The synaxarium describes Constantine the Great sending his sick daughter to the shepherd to be cured, and credits her with finding Menas' body, after which Constantine ordered the construction of a church at the site. (Some versions of the story replace Constantine with the late-5th century emperor Zeno, but archaeologists have dated the original foundation to the mid-4th century.) By the late 4th century, it was a significant pilgrimage site for Christians who sought healing and other miracles.^[1][2] For other uses, see Constantine I (disambiguation). ... Flavius Zeno (c. ... For the magazine about archaeology, see Archaeology (magazine). ...

During the reign of Arcadius, the local archbishop observed that crowds were overwhelming the small church. He wrote to the eastern emperor, who ordered a major expansion of the facilities, the first of three major church expansions which would eventually take place. By the end of the Late Antique period, Abu Mena had become the leading pilgrimage site in Egypt.^[3][4] Idealising bust of Arcadius in the Theodosian style combines elements of classicism with the new hieratic style (Istanbul Archaeology Museum) Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arcadius For the Greek grammarian, see Arcadius of Antioch. ...

Abu Mena was destroyed by the Muslim conquest of the mid-7th century. Age of the Caliphs The initial Muslim conquests (632-732) began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and were marked by a century of rapid Arab expansion beyond the Arabian peninsula under the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, ending with the Battle of Tours— resulting in a vast Muslim...

Archaeological excavations

The site was first excavated from 1905 to 1907. These efforts uncovered a large basilica church, an adjacent church which had probably housed the saint's remains, and Roman baths.^[5] A relic is an object, especially a piece of the body or a personal item of someone of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial, Relics are an important aspect of Buddhism, some denominations of Christianity, Hinduism, shamanism, and many other personal belief systems. ... The term thermae was the word the Ancient Romans used for the buildings housing their public baths. ...

A later, long-term series of excavations by the DAI ended in 1998. The most recent excavations uncovered a large dormitory for poor pilgrims, with separate wings for men and for women and children. A complex to the south of the great basilica was likely the residence of the hegoumenos, or abbot. Excavations suggest that the great xenodocheion, a reception area for pilgrims, may originally have been a cemetery. A baptistery, adjacent to the site of the original church, appears to have gone through at least three phases of development. Also uncovered was a complex of wine presses, including underground storage rooms, which dates to the 6th and 7th centuries.^[3] The German Archaeological Institute (German: , DAI) is one of the worlds leading archaeological research institutions, and a scientific corporation under the auspices of the German Foreign Office. ... A typical American college dorm room Another typical not-so-clean college dorm room Watterson Towers, Illinois State University Potomac Hall, second-largest dormitory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. ... Abbots coat of arms The word abbot, meaning father, has been used as a Christian clerical title in various, mainly monastic, meanings. ... A Xenodocheion or Xenodochion is a building for the reception of strangers, especially in a monastery. ... Castle Ashby Graveyard Northamptonshire A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. ... In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Latin baptisterium) is the separate centrally-planned structure surrounding the baptismal font. ... This entry incorporates text from Eastons Bible Dictionary, 1897, with some modernisation. ...

Notes

See also

• Saint Mina Monastery in Mariut, the modern pilgrimage site, which borders the original Abu Mena site to the north

Today, thousands of pilgrims continue to flock from all over the world to receive spiritual and physical healing at the revived monastery, which has once again become Lourdes of the East. The late Pope Kyrillos VI established this Coptic Orthodox monastery in 1959 in commemoration of Saint Mina (Menas), his...

External links

• Abu Mena at UNESCO World Heritage Centre; includes links to 360˚ panoramic photos of the site

v • d • e World Heritage Sites in Egypt

Abu Mena · Islamic Cairo · Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur · Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae · Saint Catherine Area · Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis · Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... Islamic Cairo is a part of central Cairo often visited by tourists because of its high proportion of historically important mosques and other Islamic monuments. ... For other uses, see Memphis. ... 19th-century tourists in front of the Sphinx - view from South-East, Great Pyramid in background The Giza Necropolis stands on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Model showing the relative positions of the Abu Simbel temples before and after relocation Categories: Ancient Egypt stubs | Wonders of the World ... Philae (or Pilak or Paaleq [Egyptian: remote place or the end or the angle island]; [Arabic: Anas el Wagud]) is an island in the Nile River and the previous site of an Ancient Egyptian temple complex in southern Egypt. ... St. ... Thebes Thebes (, ThÄ“bai) is the Greek designation of the ancient Egyptian niwt (The) City and niwt-rst (The) Southern City. It is located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile (). Thebes was the capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian nome... Wadi Al-Hitan (Arabic: , Whale Valley) is a palaeontological site in the Al Fayyum Governorate of Egypt. ...

Coordinates: 30.84105° N 29.66349° E Image File history File links Flag_of_Egypt. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...