Wadi El Natrun in the context of "Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic"

30°01′55″N 31°04′30″E / 30.03194°N 31.07500°E / 30.03194; 31.07500

Abu Rawash (also spelled Abu Roach, Abu Roash; Arabic: ابو رواش  Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [ˈæbu ɾæˈwæːʃ], Coptic: ⲁⲃⲣⲱⲟⲩϣⲓ abrowshi, Coptic pronunciation: [ɑbˈroːwʃi], "flesh of sensual pleasures"), 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of Giza, is the site of Egypt's most northerly pyramid, also known as the lost pyramid – the mostly ruined Pyramid of Djedefre, the son and successor of Khufu. Originally, it was thought that this pyramid had never been completed, but the current archaeological consensus is that not only was it completed, but that it was built about the same size as the Pyramid of Menkaure – the third largest of the Giza pyramids. It's believed that the destruction of the pyramid started at the end of the New Kingdom at the latest, and was particularly intense during the Roman and early Christian eras when a Coptic monastery was built in nearby Wadi Karin. It has been proven, moreover, that at the end of the nineteenth century, stone was still being hauled away at the rate of three hundred camel loads a day.

The Nitrian Desert is a desert region in northwestern Egypt, lying between Alexandria and Cairo west of the Nile Delta. It is known for its history of Christian monasticism.

There were three monastic centres in the Nitrian Desert in Late Antiquity. Around 330, Macarius the Egyptian established a monastic colony in the Wadi El Natrun (Scetis), far from cultivable land. In the 330s, Saint Amun founded Nitria, only 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Alexandria, using the rules of Saint Anthony. He founded a second centre, Kellia, on Anthony's suggestion, deeper into the desert. Kellia has been the object of scientific excavations. Only Scetis in the Wadi El Natrun remains a monastic site today.

The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Wadi El Natrun, then known as Skete, in Roman Egypt, beginning around the third century. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers is a collection of saying and other texts attributed to desert monks and nuns from this era.

The first Desert Father was Paul of Thebes. The most well-known Anthony the Great, who moved to the desert in 270–271 and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism. By the time Anthony had died in 356, thousands of monks and nuns had been drawn to live in the desert following Anthony's example, leading his biographer, Athanasius of Alexandria, to write that "the desert had become a city." The Desert Fathers significantly influenced the development of Christianity.