Wonderful

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Officials, visitors and journalists take a tour following a ceremony of
the completion of the restoration works at the Monastery of St. Antony,
Suez city, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. Egypt’s antiquities chief on
Thursday unveiled the completion of an 8-year, $14.5 million restoration
of the world’s oldest Christian monastery, touting it as a sign of
Christian-Muslim coexistence. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
(Nasser
Nasser, AP / February 4, 2010)

ZAAFARANA, Egypt (AP) — Egypt’s antiquities
chief on Thursday unveiled the completion of an 8-year, $14.5 million
restoration of the world’s oldest Christian monastery, touting it as a
sign of Christian-Muslim coexistence.

The
announcement at the 1,600-year-old St. Anthony’s Monastery came a month
after Egypt’s worst incident of sectarian violence in over a decade,
when a shooting on a church on Orthodox Christmas Eve killed seven
people.

The attack raised heavy criticism of the
Egyptian government abroad and at home, by critics who say it has not
done enough to address tensions between the country’s Muslim majority
and its Christian population, estimated at 10 percent of the 79 million
population.

The government insists the shooting was
a purely criminal act with no sectarian motives, and officials
persistently deny the existence of significant Muslim-Christian
frictions.

Top archaeologist Zahi Hawass took the
opportunity to reiterate that stance as he showed journalists the work
at St. Anthony’s, an ancient compound at the foot of the desert
mountains near Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

“The
announcement we are making today shows to the world how we are keen to
restore the monuments of our past, whether Coptic, Jewish or Muslim,” he
said, referring to the dominant Orthodox Coptic Christian sect in
Egypt.

“The incident in Upper Egypt can happen
between two brothers,” said Hawass when asked if there was any
connection between the Jan. 6 shooting and the timing of his
announcement at the monastery. “I want everyone to forgot this
incident.”

Hawass noted that the restoration work
at the monastery was carried out by Muslims.

St.
Anthony, widely revered as the founder of Christian monasticism, settled
in this remote mountainous area at the end of the 3rd century to live
in isolation. Upon his death, his followers built the monastery, which
was completed around A.D. 350 remains in use to this day.

In the government-sponsored project, workers renovated the
fortress-like ancient wall surrounding the monastery and the walls of
its two main churches — the 14th century Church of the Apostles and the
6th century Church of St. Anthony. They also renovated monks’ quarters
and a 6th century tower into which monks would retreat during attacks by
marauding Bedouin tribes throughout the Middle Ages.