Salwa Rashad

In the centre of Upper Egypt, in El Menya, El Bahnasa is located , the city that contains layers of history of all times and many events since the ancient Egyptian era where El Bahnasa was the capital of Upper Egypt and the centre of the worship of Set the God of chaos and confusion, this city witnessed a great battle between Set and Horus son of Osiris where Horus defeated Set and cut off his leg , In Greek era El Bahnasa was named Oxernechus, after a fish that ancient  Egyptians believed -in the cult of Osiris and isis- to have swallowed the genital organ of Osiris when Set killed his brother Osiris and cut his body to pieces and distributed it to all provinces of Egypt, Isis went to collect her husband’s body and indeed found all except for his genital part that was swallowed by the fish . Also El Bahnasa contains the oldest city in the Coptic era with its monasteries . and it was there when Virgin Mary passed by and rested under a huge tree. this tree still exist and is called the Tree of Marriam and considered  one of the blessed spots in Egypt . When the Arabs entered upper Egypt and El Bahnasa in the Roman era, this place witnessed the strongest battles between Romans and muslim/Arabs army there for was called the city of the Martyrs, who were supported by the monks of El Bahnasa and the Christian nuns who fought with the muslims against the Romans , 7 christian nuns where buried in muslim cemetery as a gratitude for their support and there is an area called the 7 girls named after the 7 nuns. El Bahnasa has one of the biggest cemeteries of the early Islamic era for sufi sheiks. this region El Bahnasa bears all blessings from the old times till today starting from the blessings of Horus to Virgin Mary to the sufi sheiks …