Monastery of Saint Fana 3.04

The Monastery of Saint Fana is a Coptic Orthodox monastery. It is named after Saint Fana, also known as Bane (c. 354–395), Coptic Christian hermit. The monastery is sometimes called the Monastery of Abu Fanah and is also known as the Monastery of the Cross, due to the presence of many beautifully decorated crosses inside its church.LocationThe monastery is situated in the Libyan Desert, not far from the cultivated land of the Nile. The monastery is located in Minya Governorate about 300 km south of Cairo, northwest of Hermopolis around from the village of Qasr Hur and east of the village of Beni Khaled.Foundation and historyThe monastery was most likely built around the burial site of Saint Fana. His tomb was found during excavations of an international team representing seven European academic institutions and led by Austrian scholar Prof. Dr. Helmut Buschhausen in 1992.The 12th-century historian Abu al-Makarim mentions the church of Saint Fana, which was restored by al-Rashid Abu Fadl. Egyptian historian of the 14th–15th century al-Maqrizi wrote about the monastery's fine architecture.