Archaeological site · Egypt
Abu Mina
أبو مينا
Ruins of a late-Roman pilgrimage town around the tomb of St Menas, south-west of Alexandria; a UNESCO World Heritage property since 1979.
Where it is
30.8411, 29.6634
Why go
Abu Mina grew up around the tomb of St Menas, a martyr of the late third and early fourth centuries whose reputation drew pilgrims seeking blessings. Around the tomb rose a baptistery, several churches, baths, houses, wine presses, workshops, pilgrim lodgings and a colonnaded square known as the Pilgrims' Court. The town was later abandoned and forgotten until the German archaeologist C. M. Kaufmann identified it early in the twentieth century; Coptic Museum and Graeco-Roman Museum teams later excavated its residential quarters. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 1979.
Near Abu Mina
Monastery
Monastery of St Mina, Mariout
Active Coptic monastery at Mariout founded in 1959, home to the shrine of Pope Kyrillos VI and a cathedral of St Mina.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa
Roman-era underground catacombs in Alexandria whose reliefs blend ancient Egyptian and Greek funerary art.
43 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Pompey's Pillar and the Serapeum
Diocletian's towering late-3rd-century column, popularly called Pompey's Pillar, beside the ruins of Alexandria's Serapeum temple.
44 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Kom el-Dikka
An excavated Roman and Byzantine quarter in central Alexandria with a marble odeon, baths, lecture halls and the Villa of the Birds mosaics.
46 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ