Driving forty-five kilometers southwest from the Mediterranean port of Alexandria into the sun-bleached limestone plains of the Mariout Desert (ancient Mareotis, in modern Borg El Arab District), travelers encounter a quiet archaeological expanse where rows of carved white marble column bases and Corinthian capitals rise out of the golden earth. More than fifteen hundred years ago, this seemingly remote desert plateau stood at the center of one of the largest, wealthiest, and most magnificent pilgrimage cities in the entire Christian world, rivaling Jerusalem and Rome in the sheer number of travelers who crossed land and sea to reach its gates.
This 182-hectare archaeological landscape is Abu Mena (also spelled Abu Mina or Karm Abu Mina), the ancient sanctuary that grew around the subterranean tomb of Saint Menas of Egypt (Mar Mina) and one of the very first cultural monuments on earth inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 (Ref. 90). Preserving the marble foundations of a complete late-antique sacred metropolis with its Great Basilica, Martyrion Crypt Church, Octagonal Baptistery, pilgrim hospices, and heated Roman baths, Abu Mena also testifies to the unbroken vitality of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox monastic heritage: directly bordering the northern edge of the ancient ruins rises the modern Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Mina, whose twin bell towers and seven domes have echoed with daily liturgical chant since 1959.
ISaint Menas the Wonderworker, the Legend of the Two Kneeling Camels, and the Terracotta Pilgrim Ampullae
The spiritual heart of Abu Mena is Saint Menas of Egypt (Mar Mina al-Ajaibi, meaning Saint Mina the Wonderworker), one of the most beloved warrior-martyrs of the early Christian East. According to the Coptic Synaxarium and the ancient Greek and Coptic Acts of Saint Menas, Menas was born around 285 CE in Egypt to noble Christian parents: his father Eudoxius served as a provincial governor, and his mother Euphemia conceived him after praying earnestly before an icon of the Virgin Mary, naming the child Mena after hearing the mystical response Amen issue from the panel.
Orphaned in his teens, Menas entered the Roman army and was stationed with a military tribune at Cotyaeum in Phrygia (Asia Minor, modern Kütahya in Türkiye). When Emperors Diocletian and Maximian issued their edicts of persecution against Christians at the end of the third century, Menas abandoned his military rank and withdrew into the Phrygian mountains to spend five years in fasting and solitary prayer. Around 295 or 296 CE, during pagan games celebrating the imperial anniversary in the amphitheater of Cotyaeum, Menas walked boldly into the arena and publicly proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ before the governor Pyrrhus. After enduring severe tortures without wavering, he was martyred by beheading on the 15th day of the Coptic month of Hathor (November 11 on the Julian calendar, observed on November 24 today).
How the relics of a soldier martyred in Asia Minor came to found a sacred city in the Egyptian desert is recounted in the famous foundation narrative of Abu Mena. In the early fourth century, when Roman troops were transferred from Phrygia to suppress an uprising in Cyrenaica and North Africa, a devout military commander named Athanasius brought the body of Saint Menas along for spiritual protection. Once the campaign ended and the soldiers prepared to sail back from Alexandria to Asia Minor, they placed the saint's reliquary chest upon a camel, but the animal knelt down and refused to move; when they transferred the relics to a second camel, it too remained immovable on the ground.
Recognizing a divine sign that the Egyptian martyr wished to rest in his native land, the commander released the camels to walk freely into the desert south of Lake Mareotis (Mariout). When the animals reached a desert depression some forty-five kilometers southwest of Alexandria, they stopped and knelt down permanently, marking the spot where local herdsmen buried the coffin. Soon afterward, a shepherd noticed that a lamb afflicted with severe mange was instantaneously healed after rolling in the wet mud beside a spring near the unmarked grave; word of the miracle spread until the daughter of the Roman Emperor was cured of leprosy at the site and excavated the saint's relics. From this account arose the unmistakable early Christian iconography of Saint Menas standing in military cloak with both hands raised in the Orans posture of prayer, flanked at his feet by two kneeling camels.
Archaeological proof of Abu Mena's extraordinary Mediterranean-wide fame survives in tens of thousands of Terracotta Pilgrim Flasks of Saint Menas (Ampullae of Saint Menas) unearthed across three continents. Between the late fourth and mid-seventh centuries CE, ceramic kilns at Abu Mena mass-produced small, flattened circular clay flasks measuring six to ten centimeters in diameter, fitted with narrow necks and twin loop handles so pilgrims could suspend them on a cord around their necks. Each flask was filled either with healing spring water from the sanctuary or with blessed olive oil drawn from the vigil lamps burning perpetually above the saint's marble sarcophagus in the underground crypt.
Stamped in relief on both circular faces of the flask was the image of Saint Menas praying between his two kneeling camels, encircled by the Greek inscription Eulogia tou Hagiou Mena (Blessing of Saint Menas). Modern excavations have recovered these distinctive Mareotis-clay ampullae at an astonishing geographic range: from Meols in Cheshire (England), Paris and Arles (France), Cologne and Heidelberg (Germany), Milan and Rome (Italy), and Dalmatia (Croatia) to Constantinople, Jerusalem, Dongola in Nubia (Sudan), and even Samarkand in Central Asia. Preserved today in the Louvre, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Coptic Museum in Cairo, the Menas ampullae represent the earliest large-scale sacred souvenir industry in Christian history.
First-time visitors encountering the name Abu Mena occasionally confuse the Christian saint of this pilgrimage city with Pharaoh Menes (Narmer), the legendary first king who unified Upper and Lower Egypt around 3100 BCE. In historical reality, the two figures are separated by more than three millennia: the Arabic name Abu Mena (derived from the Greek and Coptic Abba Menas, meaning Father Menas) refers exclusively to the late-third-century Egyptian Christian martyr executed in 296 CE under Emperor Diocletian, and has no connection to the early dynastic pharaoh.
IIFrom a Desert Grave to the Imperial Marble City of Arcadius and Zeno and the Excavations of Carl Maria Kaufmann
The architectural evolution of Abu Mena mirrors the transformation of Christianity from a persecuted faith into the imperial state church of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. In the first half of the fourth century, during the reign of Constantine the Great and the episcopate of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (328 to 373 CE), a small stone oratory (Tetrapylon) was erected directly over the underground burial chamber of Saint Menas, followed in the late fourth century by a modest three-aisled basilica.
By the end of the fourth century, crowds of pilgrims arriving at Mareotis had grown so vast that the early church could no longer hold the faithful. Patriarch Theophilos of Alexandria (385 to 412 CE) petitioned the Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius (reigned 395 to 408 CE) for imperial patronage. Emperor Arcadius ordered the construction of a colossal Great Basilica built of fine limestone and imported marble directly adjoining the eastern end of the Crypt Church. Late in the fifth century, under Emperor Zeno (reigned 474 to 491 CE) and Patriarch Timothy II, Abu Mena reached its urban apogee when the emperor financed palaces, colonnaded plazas, a military garrison of 1,200 soldiers to guard pilgrims against desert raiders, and civic infrastructure that turned the sanctuary into a thriving walled city known as Martyriopolis.
- 296 CE and mid-4th centuryMartyrdom of Saint Menas and consecration of the original crypt sanctuary under Saint AthanasiusFollowing the martyrdom of Saint Menas in 296 CE, his relics are buried at the desert spot chosen by two kneeling camels in Mareotis; Patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria consecrates the first church over the underground tomb.
- Reigns of Emperor Arcadius (395 to 408) and Emperor Zeno (474 to 491)Construction of the 66.5-meter Great Basilica, Octagonal Baptistery, and Marble CityResponding to Patriarch Theophilos, Emperor Arcadius builds the monumental cruciform Great Basilica; Emperor Zeno later expands Abu Mena into a full pilgrimage metropolis with Xenodochia hospices, colonnaded streets, and Double Roman Baths.
- 619 CE, 641 CE, and the 9th centurySassanid Persian destruction, Coptic rebuilding, and gradual abandonment to the desert sandsThe city suffers heavy damage during the Sassanid Persian invasion of Egypt in 619 CE; although Coptic Patriarchs Benjamin I and Michael I restore the church between the 7th and 9th centuries, nomadic raids and drying canals eventually leave the city buried under desert sand.
- 1905 to 1907 and from 1961 onwardGerman archaeologist Carl Maria Kaufmann rediscovers Abu Mena beneath Karm Abu MinaBetween 1905 and 1907, German archaeologist Monsignore Carl Maria Kaufmann and Ewald Falls excavate the sand mounds of Karm Abu Mina, uncovering the Great Basilica, the Crypt of Saint Menas, and thousands of ampullae; from 1961, the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (DAIK) under Peter Grossmann conducts systematic excavations.
- November 27, 1959Saint Pope Kyrillos VI lays the foundation stone of the modern Monastery of Saint MinaCoptic Orthodox Pope Kyrillos VI (Cyril VI, 116th Pope of Alexandria), deeply devoted to Saint Mina since youth, purchases desert land immediately north of the UNESCO ruins to establish the vibrant modern Monastery of Saint Mina.
- 1979, 2001, and July 2025UNESCO World Heritage inscription and the 2025 removal from the World Heritage in Danger ListInscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 (Ref. 90); placed on the Danger List in 2001 due to rising agricultural groundwater weakening the clay subsoil; officially removed from the Danger List in July 2025 after Egypt completes a 170-well solar-powered groundwater lowering project.
The eleventh-century chronicle of Al-Bakri and Kaufmann's 1905 rediscovery. Even centuries after Abu Mena's golden age had passed, the marble splendor of its ruins in the Mareotis wilderness astonished medieval Muslim geographers. Writing in the eleventh century, the renowned Andalusian Arab geographer Abu Ubayd al-Bakri (1014 to 1094) described Abu Mena as a breathtaking complex of palaces and colonnaded halls built of the finest marble, noting that carved statues and vigil lamps over the tomb of Saint Menas still burned day and night without ceasing. Earlier, in 836 CE, during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tasim, imperial agents even quarried prized colored marble columns and pavement slabs from the abandoned halls of Abu Mena to adorn the new Abbasid capital of Samarra in Iraq. After the last medieval settlement vanished, the city lay forgotten beneath the dunes until the summer of 1905, when the German archaeologist Carl Maria Kaufmann, guided by Bedouin accounts of pottery shards at Karm Abu Mina, excavated the sand hills and revealed the intact staircases descending to the Martyr's Crypt and the vast footprint of the Great Basilica.
IIIThe Cruciform Great Basilica, the Martyrion Crypt, the Octagonal Baptistery, and the Modern Monastery of Saint Mina
The urban layout of fifth- and sixth-century Abu Mena is a masterpiece of late-antique pilgrimage planning. At the center of the city stands an integrated liturgical complex stretching over 120 meters along a continuous West-to-East axis, uniting three major ecclesiastical structures end-to-end: at the western end rises the Octagonal Baptistery, in the center stands the Crypt Church (Martyrion Basilica) built directly above the subterranean tomb of Saint Menas, and extending eastward is the immense Great Basilica of Emperor Arcadius.
North of this sacred spine opens the colonnaded Pilgrims' Court (Forum), flanked by two large charitable hostels for poor travelers (Xenodochia), a monumental Double Roman Bathhouse, wine presses, and pottery kilns, while directly south of the Martyrion lies a semicircular colonnaded court (Hemicyclium) lined with chambers where sick pilgrims practiced therapeutic incubation (sleeping near the tomb in hope of a healing dream).
Located four meters below the floor of the central church is the Hypogeum of Saint Menas: a vaulted underground chamber once clad in white marble slabs and ceiling mosaics of gold leaf. To manage the immense flow of pilgrims, fifth-century engineers built two wide stone staircases for one-way traffic: pilgrims descended the eastern stair, venerated the marble relief of Saint Menas between two camels, and ascended the western stair. Directly overhead stood the Martyrion Church, rebuilt in the sixth century as a golden-domed four-lobed (tetraconch) sanctuary with a shaft opening directly down into the tomb.
Begun under Emperor Arcadius (395 to 408) and completed under Emperor Zeno, the Great Basilica was one of the largest churches in Christian antiquity, measuring 66.5 meters in length and 51 meters across its transept. Designed as a three-aisled cruciform basilica with a three-aisled transept supported by 56 imported marble columns topped with finely carved Corinthian capitals, its eastern sanctuary apse preserves the semicircular tiered clergy bench (Synthronon), marble chancel screen bases, and main altar foundation.
Joined to the western narthex of the Crypt Church is the multi-phased Baptistery, whose final sixth-century form featured an exterior square enclosing a vaulted interior octagon with semicircular corner niches. Set into the center of its polychrome marble pavement (opus sectile) is a deep circular marble immersion font accessed by two opposing flights of marble steps, where adult catechumens were baptized during the Easter Vigil.
Framing the southern side of the Crypt Church is the Hemicyclium, a semicircular colonnade enclosing small rooms where the sick and disabled rested overnight near the saint's tomb. North of the main square stood two large courtyard hospices (Xenodochia) containing 45 rooms for pilgrims, paired with the Double Baths (divided into separate men's and women's sections) complete with deep cisterns, dressing halls, and underfloor hypocaust heating furnaces.
Beyond the central complex, excavations revealed the Northern Basilica (serving as the patriarchal residence during visits from Alexandria), the Eastern Monastery (a vast quadrangular compound housing over 300 monks who staffed the shrine), and industrial-scale plastered wine presses and amphora cellars that produced the famed Mareotis wine for liturgical celebration and pilgrim hospitality.
Rising a few hundred meters north of the UNESCO ruins is the contemporary 100-acre Monastery of Saint Mina founded in 1959 by Saint Pope Kyrillos VI. Its centerpiece is the monumental Cathedral of Saint Mina crowned by seven domes and twin bell towers, housing seven marble altars, the revered relics of Saint Menas, and the marble crypt of Saint Pope Kyrillos VI (1902 to 1971, canonized in 2013).
| Monument / Sector | Date and location | Architectural design and pilgrimage function |
|---|---|---|
| Saint Menas Crypt & Martyrion Church | 4th to 6th centuries CE; heart of the liturgical spine | Vaulted subterranean tomb 4 m deep with one-way twin stairs beneath a 6th-century tetraconch church |
| Great Basilica of Arcadius | Early 5th century (expanded under Zeno); east of the Crypt | Cruciform three-aisled basilica (66.5 m by 51 m) with 56 marble columns and Synthronon apse |
| Octagonal Baptistery | 5th to 6th centuries CE; western extremity of the church complex | Domed octagonal hall with opus sectile marble floors and a deep twin-stair immersion font |
| Hemicyclium & Xenodochia Hospices | 5th to 6th centuries CE; south and north of the Pilgrims' Court | Semicircular healing incubation court and two 45-room charitable guesthouses for travelers |
| Double Roman Baths & Ampullae Kilns | 5th to 6th centuries CE; northern civic quarter | Hypocaust-heated twin bath complexes, wine presses, and kilns producing terracotta Menas flasks |
| Modern Monastery of Saint Mina | Founded November 27, 1959; immediately north of the UNESCO zone | Living Coptic Orthodox monastery featuring the seven-domed cathedral and tomb of Pope Kyrillos VI |
IVThe Lie of the Land
It should be stated clearly that early Christian builders in late-antique Egypt did not practice East Asian geomancy (feng shui). The founding of Abu Mena on this specific spot in the Mariout Desert was dictated by religious devotion to the burial site of Saint Menas beside a natural desert spring, while its churches were aligned according to the universal early Christian liturgical rule of facing the altar toward the East (Ad Orientem). Below is a comparative reading of Abu Mena's desert-oasis topography and axial alignment through the library's traditional landform lens.
Viewed across the macro-geography of northwestern Egypt at coordinates 30.8411 degrees north, 29.6636 degrees east, Abu Mena occupies a gently elevated limestone and clay ridge within the Mariout (Mareotis) basin, positioned south of the coastal lagoon of Lake Mariout and the Mediterranean limestone ridges. In late antiquity between the fourth and sixth centuries, this landscape was not barren desert but a fertile oasis belt watered by branches of the western Nile delta canals feeding Lake Mareotis and subterranean freshwater aquifers, supporting flourishing vineyards and olive groves. Pilgrims sailing from across the Mediterranean disembarked at ports along the southern shore of Lake Mariout and walked southward up a gentle slope into the marble city. In classical landform terms, a slightly raised plateau blessed with perennial sweet-water springs between a northern lake basin and the vast southern desert represents a water-gathering oasis terrace, combining contemplative desert solitude with direct access to maritime pilgrimage routes.
In terms of axial orientation, the entire 120-meter liturgical core of Abu Mena (from the Octagonal Baptistery in the West, through the central Martyrion Crypt Church, to the Great Basilica of Arcadius in the East) is laid out along a strict West-to-East axis. Catechumens and pilgrims entered from the West (symbolizing the setting sun and the renunciation of darkness), passed over the martyr's tomb at the center, and faced due East toward the main altar apse to greet the rising desert sun, symbol of the Risen Christ. Meanwhile, the open Pilgrims' Court on the North caught cooling breezes blowing inland from the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mariout, while the curved wall of the Hemicyclium sheltered the southern flank against hot desert winds.
VFeast of Saint Menas on 15 Hathor, Commemoration of Saint Pope Kyrillos VI, and the 2025 Conservation Milestone
Unlike many archaeological sites that survive only as silent ruins, Abu Mena is a living sacred landscape where fourth-century Christian history and twenty-first-century monastic devotion meet. Thanks to the thriving Monastery of Saint Mina (Deir Mar Mina) bordering the UNESCO zone, the ancient tradition of desert pilgrimage to Mareotis draws hundreds of thousands of Coptic Orthodox faithful and international visitors every year.
| Date / Season | Calendar system | Feast or Commemoration | Liturgical traditions at Abu Mena and the Monastery of Saint Mina |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Hathor annually (November 24 Gregorian; November 25 in leap years) | Coptic Liturgical Calendar & Gregorian Calendar | Great Feast of the Martyrdom of Saint Mina the Wonderworker (Mar Mina) | The largest annual pilgrimage in the Mariout Desert: tens of thousands of faithful gather at the Monastery of Saint Mina and the adjacent UNESCO ruins for all-night vigil hymns (Tasbeha), incense processions around the saint's reliquary, and solemn Pontifical Divine Liturgies at dawn. |
| 15 Ba'unah annually (June 22 Gregorian) | Coptic Liturgical Calendar | Feast of the Discovery of the Relics and Consecration of the Church of Saint Mina at Mariout | Commemorates the fourth-century discovery of Saint Menas's healing relics in the Mariout Desert and the consecration of the original church over his crypt. |
| 30 Amshir annually (March 9 Gregorian) | Coptic Liturgical Calendar & Gregorian Calendar | Annual Commemoration of Saint Pope Kyrillos VI (Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria) | Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the marble crypt of Saint Pope Kyrillos VI (1902 to 1971) inside the Monastery of Saint Mina, honoring the patriarch who revived monastic life beside the ancient ruins of Abu Mena in 1959. |
| November 11 annually | Eastern Orthodox (Greek) & Roman Catholic Calendars | Universal Feast of Saint Menas of Egypt | Greek Orthodox and Catholic pilgrimage groups from Alexandria and abroad visit the archaeological columns of the Great Basilica and the Martyr's Crypt to pray at the shrine of a saint venerated across the undivided early Church. |
The July 2025 UNESCO conservation triumph. In July 2025, during the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, Abu Mena celebrated a historic conservation milestone when it was officially removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger. The site had been placed on the Danger List in 2001 after regional agricultural land-reclamation schemes caused the local water table to rise sharply, saturating the hard clay subsoil capable of supporting dry ruins and threatening the underground Crypt of Saint Menas with collapse. Over two decades, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, working in partnership with UNESCO engineers and the monks of Saint Mina Monastery, constructed an innovative solar-powered drainage network of 170 deep subterranean pumping wells encircling the archaeological zone, successfully lowering the groundwater level, stabilizing the Martyr's Crypt, and establishing a new sustainable conservation plan for future generations.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Mariout Desert, New Borg El Arab District, 45 km southwest of Alexandria, Alexandria Governorate, Egypt
- Getting there
- The Abu Mena pilgrimage site and Monastery of Saint Mina are located in the Mariout Desert in Borg El Arab District, approximately 45 to 50 km southwest of central Alexandria (only 20 km south of Borg El Arab International Airport, HBE, and about 195 km northwest of Cairo). The most practical way to reach the site from Alexandria or Cairo is by private car or hired taxi via the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road or the coastal highway toward New Borg El Arab, turning onto the well-marked monastery approach road (signposted with the emblem of Saint Menas and two camels), which takes roughly 50 to 60 minutes from downtown Alexandria.
- Coordinates
- 30.8411, 29.6636
Both the UNESCO archaeological site of Abu Mena and the adjoining modern Monastery of Saint Mina are open daily to pilgrims and visitors from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (admission is free of charge at both the monastery and the archaeological park, though certain strict fasting weeks of Coptic Lent may have restricted visiting hours). Visitors should plan to explore both halves of the heritage landscape: begin at the gated compound of the modern Monastery of Saint Mina to admire the seven-domed Cathedral, venerate the relics of Saint Mina and the marble crypt of Saint Pope Kyrillos VI, and visit the monastery's bookshop and farm store (famous for pure olive oil, honey, and dates grown by the monks); then walk or drive 800 meters south into the open-air UNESCO archaeological field to view the marble colonnades of the Great Basilica, the Octagonal Baptistery, and the staircases of the ancient Crypt. Because the archaeological ruins lie completely exposed to the desert sun with no shade, bring a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, plenty of drinking water, and sturdy closed walking shoes, and dress modestly (shoulders and knees covered; women should bring a headscarf for entering the monastery churches).
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?Quick Questions
Who was Saint Menas of Egypt, and why is he always depicted between two kneeling camels?
Saint Menas (c. 285 to 296 CE) was an Egyptian Christian soldier in the Roman army who suffered martyrdom by beheading in Phrygia (Asia Minor) during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. According to early Christian tradition, when his relics were brought back to Egypt and loaded onto camels to cross the Mariout Desert, two camels successively stopped and knelt at the same desert spot, refusing to walk any further; buried there beside a desert spring that soon performed healing miracles, his tomb became the nucleus of the pilgrimage city of Abu Mena.
What are the Ampullae of Saint Menas, and why are they so famous in archaeology?
The Ampullae of Saint Menas are small, flat circular terracotta pilgrim flasks with twin neck handles mass-produced in the workshops of Abu Mena between the fourth and seventh centuries CE so pilgrims could carry home holy water or oil from the lamps burning over the saint's tomb. Stamped on both sides with the image of Saint Menas praying in the Orans posture between two kneeling camels, tens of thousands of these flasks have been excavated across Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Türkiye, Jerusalem, and Sudan, testifying to Abu Mena's vast international pilgrimage network.
What are the main architectural monuments preserved in the UNESCO archaeological zone of Abu Mena?
The centerpiece of ancient Abu Mena is a 120-meter West-to-East liturgical complex uniting three major monuments: the domed Octagonal Baptistery with its deep marble immersion font on the West, the Martyrion Crypt Church built directly over the 4-meter-deep underground tomb of Saint Menas in the center, and the 66.5-meter cruciform Great Basilica built by Emperors Arcadius and Zeno on the East. Surrounding them are the colonnaded Pilgrims' Court, the semicircular healing Hemicyclium, two 45-room Xenodochia hospices, Double Roman Baths, and ancient wine presses.
Why was Abu Mena placed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger in 2001, and how was it saved in 2025?
In 2001, UNESCO placed Abu Mena on the List of World Heritage in Danger because nearby agricultural irrigation projects caused the regional groundwater table to rise dramatically, liquefying the hard clay subsoil and threatening the underground Crypt of Saint Menas with collapse. Following a major engineering intervention by the Egyptian government that installed 170 solar-powered subterranean drainage wells around the site and reinforced the crypt vaults, UNESCO officially removed Abu Mena from the Danger List in July 2025.
When was the modern Monastery of Saint Mina beside the ancient ruins established?
The contemporary Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Mina (Deir Mar Mina), located immediately north of the UNESCO archaeological zone, was founded on November 27, 1959, by Saint Pope Kyrillos VI (the 116th Pope of Alexandria) to revive monastic life and pilgrimage at Mariout after centuries of interruption. Today the monastery is a major spiritual center housing a seven-domed cathedral, relics of Saint Menas, and the marble tomb of Saint Pope Kyrillos VI.