Monastery of St. Simeon

A nice hike to reach at Simeon. There's a room where the monk was known to tie his hair and hang his fingers to stop him from falling asleep while praying. Entrance fee was 100pounds. Only by cash.

Nice old Monastery in the middle of the desert , now under renovation, but nice to visit if your aroumd and ok to walk in the sand and go up stairs .

Landing on the West Bank our camels awaited, he making great fuss that his tuk tuk had not heat arrived to transport him up the hill to the monastery! Fortunately it arrived and we proceeded to mount our camels… now its a long time since I’ve ridden a camel, or anything more risky than a bicycle so it was a bit f a shock to the system, and it seemed I had a particularly frisky young camel which had me hanging on for dear life and there was no way I was going to leave to to get my camera out to record the event for posterity! Fortunately it wasn’t too long a ride and I was thankful to dismount safely! My husband said OK we will go back down with the guide in the tuk tuk! The monastery, from the 5th century is in ruin but there a task force working on preventing and further decay in a number of roof areas, which must be a huge job, they started back in 2014, although funding hasn’t always been available for them to be present continuously. The monastery itself is huge, much larger than we had expected, and it was relatively easy to imaging how each area was used when in full use. There was an interesting room full of ‘graffiti’ of Sudanese travellers from the

When arriving at the Monastery of Saint Simeon, you feel like you’ve left earth. The vast amount of desert and rock and sand is staggering to see. The ruins are quite spectacular. It’s surreal to be there and see camels in the distance traveling. Certainly a noteworthy experience.

EPIC! A very cool break from temples and a nice insight into some different Egyptian history. There are guides there, that will follow you and tell you about the history. You could probably say no, but I just went with it this time and it was good fun and adds to the experience. It took about 30/45 mins to walk around. I tipped 200EGP, you could do less, but for me it was worth the £3 😀 Entrance is 80EGP per person.

Such a special place up a remote desert hill. To get there, you'll have to take a boat from the city, and then hike up a hill for about 10-15 minutes. It's worth the effort, but make sure to have someone explain the history of this 5th century gem for you.

A very interesting visit to a very neglected Monastery. We went with a boat across the Nile and on camel back to the Monastry (a package was 50 / person excluding the entry fee). The entry fee was 40 Egyptian pounds / person. Make sure that you have evidence of paying for the boat, camels and entry if you pay for it all because the communication between the hotel's travel agent and transport was not good.

Great ruins and location. Camel rides through the sand made an unforgettable experience. Beautiful views and easy boat ride to access.