Monastery of St. Jeremias

The Principal Church of the Monastery of St. Jeremias

The ruined monastery of the Coptic St. Jeremias (Jeremiah) dwells south of the causeway of the pyramid of King Unas on the inch of the desert plateau of Saqqara, due east of the New Kingdom necropolis. This monastery was set up in the late fifth century AD, perhaps by Jeremias himself, and it functioned up to the middle of the 9th century. It was first turned up between years 1906 and 1909 aside the British archaeologist J.E. Quibell, who found many remains of stone carving and painted plaster decoration, most of which is nowadays on display in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Numerous building blocks of the monastery had been got from the ancient tombs of Saqqara, admitting limestone rests from Old Kingdom mastabas and from the nearby New Kingdom tombs. Limestone was only applied for the 4 churches of the complex; the mobile phones of the monks and other utilitary structures were established in mudbrick.