The Ancient Arch

This splendid adobe arch probably dates back to the 7^th century and was built during the first refoundation realized by Pope Benjamin I (623-662). Another hypothesis is that it belongs to the 9^th century’s restorations, when the monastery walls were rebuilt by Pope Shenuda I (865-877) following an attack by some desert brigands.

It is well known that the monastery’s door was on the Eastern side until 1971. The photographer of the French expedition paints the old door of the monastery in the Southern part of the Eastern wall. Butler draws for us a sketch showing the door on the Eastern side as well. We have always doubted that the Eastern door could be the original door which must have been on the Northern side, like in the rest of the Coptic Orthodox monasteries. According to the Coptic conception, it is not allowed for a door of a church or monastery to be built on the Eastern side of the building, because it is known that the Lord alone will come from the East. That is why the prophet Ezekiel says: “Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, and it was shut. 2 The Lord said to me, “He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.” (Eze. 44:1-2 NJKV).

The arch was discovered in 1970 in a state of disintegration, and the monks made an incredible technical effort that took six months until they were able to put it together in all its parts, confining it to a bearing layer of reinforced concrete from its bottom and from above, and joining it from its sides with two reinforced concrete supports with ground purlins and shoulders of huge stones to maintain its balance, after we uncovered it from all sides and emptied the buildings that were blocking it inside. While the monks discovered the ancient arch, they had already laid the foundation of the new Northern wall parallel to the old one and opened the new door inside the wall. Some weeks later, they found the old arch and realized, to their amazement, that the two doors were exactly on the same line! This confirmed, once again, that the original, most ancient entrance of the monastery was on the Northern side of the monastery and not on the Eastern side, where it was moved in a later moment.