Kellia

[2] Amun, who was then a monk at Nitria, one day talked with Anthony saying that he and some brothers wanted to move away "that they may live in peace".

[2] Anthony and Amun ate dinner then walked into the desert until sunset, prayed and planted a cross to mark the site of the new community.

[2] Kellia was for advanced monks, for those who "lived a more remote life, stripped down to bare rudiments," as was recorded in the Greek Historia Monachorum in Aegypto by Flavius Rufinus who personally saw it.

[3] Activity began to taper off in the 7th and 8th centuries due to doctrinal disputes in Egypt, and raids from nomads out of the Libyan desert to the west.

[3] Kellia was discovered by archaeologist Antoine Guillaumont in 1964, and has been excavated for over 25 years by French and Swiss teams.

[3] The structures range from single-cells for one person, to multiple cells for two or three people, to larger hermitages that included rooms for older monks, chapels and towers.