Monastery of St Simeon
A fortified Christian monastery in the desert behind Aswan’s west bank, founded in the seventh century, rebuilt in the tenth and abandoned in the thirteenth. Much of it is still standing to two storeys, and it is reached across open sand — which is most of the reason it stays quiet.
- Desert · Christian Egypt
- 1 hr 15
- Optional
- Both
- Yes
- Demanding
- Moderate
- From 8+
- not verified
- No
- Early morning
- [DATE]
A monastery at the desert’s edge
CHURCH & LOWER COMPOUND · UPPER MONASTIC BUILDINGS · DESERT ENCLOSURE
ARCADES — ELEVATION STUDY
PLASTER, MASONRY & CHRISTIAN LAYERS
The lower area contains the church remains. Arches and surviving walls help you read the spaces.
The upper buildings include spaces for communal and everyday monastic life. The drawing separates them schematically.
The enclosure rises beyond the cultivated riverbank. The approach is an exposed desert journey.
It is the only place around Aswan where you get the desert properly: no river in sight, no other visitors, and a large building that has been empty for seven hundred years. It also fills in the chapter between the temples and the mosques that most Egypt itineraries skip entirely.
Egypt was Christian for centuries between the temples closing and the mosques opening, and Aswan was on the edge of that world too. The monastery is the visible remainder of it here.
It is built like a fort because it had to be: high enclosing walls, a keep, and accommodation for a community that could be cut off. Why it was finally abandoned in the thirteenth century is argued about rather than settled.
An enclosure wall with a two-storey block inside it: church below, cells and refectory above, with barrel-vaulted ceilings and traces of painting in the sanctuary.
Upstairs, a corridor of them, roofed and cool. The most complete monastic living quarters you can walk through in Upper Egypt.
Faded and partial, but there. Take a moment for your eyes to adjust before deciding there is nothing to see.
- 45 min
- 1 hr 15
- 1 hr 45
Early morning. The approach is across open sand with no shade at all, and it is the walk rather than the monastery that decides whether this is a good visit or a bad one.
| How | Roughly | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Boat, then on foot or by camel | 20 min + 20–30 min inland | A motorboat to the west bank, then an uphill walk over sand. Camels are offered at the landing; we do not sell that ride and the welfare of the animals is something to look at for yourself before agreeing. |
Physical access to a place and accessibility on a website are different problems, and this is the first. We only publish what somebody has checked; the rest says “not verified”, because guessing here can strand somebody.
| Step-free route | No | The approach is soft uphill sand and the upper floor is reached by stairs. There is no step-free route. |
| Surface | Sand | |
| Boat transfer | Yes | |
| Stairs | Yes | Internal stairs to the upper storey; uneven treads. |
| Shade | Moderate | None on the approach; the vaulted interior is genuinely cool. |
| Seating | Not verified | |
| Accessible toilet | Not verified | |
| Walking distance | ~1500 m | Approximate, there and back before any wandering. |
From about eight, and it depends entirely on the sand walk. A cool morning makes it an adventure; a hot one makes it a march.
Go early or do not go. Done at eight in the morning it is one of the best hours in Aswan — empty, silent, and genuinely in the desert. Done at noon it is a hot walk to a ruin, and people come back wondering what the point was.
Written by — · Fact checked by —
It is uphill, soft, and unshaded. This is the reason most people who dislike the visit disliked it.
Camels are offered for the walk in. We do not list animal rides as a thing to do and we do not sell them; if you are considering one, look at the animal’s condition, its load and its water yourself, and walk if you are not satisfied.
A motorboat across, with the return arranged before you leave the corniche.
Twenty to thirty minutes of soft uphill sand each way. It is the whole physical cost of this visit.
No. It is a twenty-to-thirty-minute walk and plenty of people do it. The camels are offered, not required.
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Official site status and visitor information. Ticket prices and opening hours on this site remain unverified because nobody has re-read this source inside the review window.