Deir El Ganadla village (Arabic: قرية دير الجنادلة) is one of the villages of Al-Ghanayem Central town in Assiut Governorate in the Arab Republic of Egypt. According to 2006 statistics, the total population of Deir El Ganadla was 21,202 people, of whom 10418 were men, and 10,784 were women.
Location of Deir El Ganadla village
Deir El Ganadla Village is 22 km south of Assiut on Al-Ghanayem Road, and its monastery is 2 km west. The monastery celebrates its anniversary from 13 to 28 June. Some rest houses have been set up in the monastery for visitors and solitude.
Holy Family Visit to El Ganadla Village
El Ganadla Village is one of the stops the Virgin Mary came through on her journey in the south of Egypt. She came to Egypt carrying baby Christ on her shoulder to this southern stop, the village of El-Ganadla. Upon this Holy journey, a later monastery was established and bore association with the Virgin Mary. It bore her name, “The Monastery of the Virgin“. To distinguish it from the rest, it was described as the Monastery of Cataracts (Arabic: دير الجنادلة) for the enormous number of mountain cataracts that surround the monastery from the westside.
Etymology
The community area around the monastery (Village of El Ganadla), which is about 3 kilometres from the sanctuary, became associated with the existence of this monastery. Thus, it was named after the monastery “Deir El Ganadla Village, which translates to “the Village of the Monastery of El Ganadla”.
Monastery of Deir El Ganadla
The Ganadla Monastery was built in the sixth century AD by Saint Macrobius. Until recently, the local people called it (Monastery Abu Maqroufa) concerning its founder, in addition to what is narrated about its connection with the journey of the Holy Family in Upper Egypt. Some believe that the caves in the monastery were among the silos built by Prophet Joseph to store wheat in the years of the famine that struck Egypt. St. John Al-Tabisi also used these caves for the monks’ residence for the sake of solitude, monastic life and worship.
The monastery’s gate is located on the marine northern side, as usual for monasteries of this type. And in front of it is a large cave on the side of the gate. A large wall surrounded the sanctuary but was destroyed, leaving only brick ruins surrounding the church.
The monastery has an archaeological well dating back to the beginning of Christian history, at a depth of 45 meters in rocky ground, of which 30 meters are regular stones stacked on top of each other like the construction of the Great Pyramid, and the remaining depth is 15 meters carved in solid black rock. El-Ganadla monastery depends on the well’s water to water monks and visitors and irrigate crops.
History
The village monastery was called the Monastery of Abu Maqroufa for a short time, even when reading the area (the site maps in 1905, Saint Macrobius).
There is a lot on the Sunnah, and it was inherited from the fathers that this holy place passed by the Holy Family, reached this place, and was sanctified at the feet of the child Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary and Joseph, so he was blessed by the visit of the Holy Family.
Many Sunnis frequent it, and it is inherited from the fathers that this holy place passed by the Holy Family and reached this place, sanctified by the feet of the child Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary and Joseph. So he was consecrated by visiting the Holy Family, and that is why this monastery was named after the Virgin, Monastery of Al-Ganadla.
