(CE:847b-848a)
DAYR AL-NASARA (Armant), modern name for a rock cave situated deep in the desert north of Armant, adapted by early Christian monks for living quarters. Today one can see no more than a large square tower rising from the ruins of buildings. They are in the stony area at the foot of the mountain. One cannot say if it is the ruins of a real monastery, a cenobium, or a rest house for the hermitages that were numerous in the mountains between them and the cultivated lands. This monastery cannot be identified with any site attested by the texts. G. Daressy (1914, pp. 266-271) believed, without offering any proof, that it was Dayr Anba Daryus, of which the Sahidic recension of the Coptic SYNAXARION speaks at 2 Tubah. J. Doresse has briefly described it (1949, p. 345).
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S.J.
