Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor (Arabic: دير الأنبا صموئيل المعترف), Dair al-Anba Ṣamū'īl al-mu'tarif " or Deir el-Qalamun (Arabic: دير القلمون) is an Egyptian monastery in the Western Desert.

The monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in Qalamun is located on the northern edge of the valley Wadi el-Muweiliḥ south of Wadi El Rayan in the western desert in the province of Beni Suef west of Gebel el- Qalamūn.

The approximately 20 kilometer long valley formed part of the caravan route between Minya and Faiyum.

According to a Coptic manuscript about the martyrdom of St. Psote, at that time hermits were already living in the caves along the valley of Qalamūn.

[4] The Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823) was the first European in 1819 to visit the now manless monastery and gave a description of the catacombs church, today's crypt.

[6] After more than half a century, the German African scientist Georg Schweinfurth (1836-1925) reported in 1886 again about the monastery.

The monastery walls and the catacombs church were built from stone blocks that Schweinfurth dated to the 17th century.

They built new buildings within the new monastery complex el-Qaṣr above the crypt, serving as reception rooms, monks' cells, magazines, kitchen and bakery.

The completion of a new church for the Virgin St. Mary, Ishaq and his pupil and archpriest Ibrahim no longer experienced the death because they had died before.

The Egyptian Egyptologist Ahmed Fakhry (1905-1973) visited the monastery in June 1942 and in October 1944 and gave a description of the crypt, the new buildings of the 19th/20th century.

When one enters the monastery and the church of the Virgin Mary circling in the counterclockwise direction, one arrives at a 4 small yard.

In the north of the courtyard is the entrance to the church of St. Virgo, to the south of the eastern monastery wall a building with some monk cells and in the south of the court of the el-Qaṣr called part of the monastery with the monk's cells, the crypt and the church of St. Misael.

South side of the Church of the Virgin Mary The inner monastery area is surrounded by a wall about five to six meters high.

In the east of the church there are three helices, altar rooms, for Archangel Michael in the north, te Holy Virgin Mary and St. George.

The life of St. Misael the Anchorite (Arabic القديس ميصائيل السائح, al-Qiddis Mīṣā'īl as-Sa'ih) at the time of the monastery abbot St. Isaac, the successor of St. Samuel, asked the twelve-year-old Misael to join the monastery as a monk.

The father, who was now strictly faithful, did as the monk charged him, and his wife bore him a son whom they called Misael.

At the age of six, his parents died and Bishop Athanasius drew him up, sent him to school, and administered the paternal inheritance.

Misael, however, asked the monastery supervisor Isaac to demand the paternal inheritance of Bishop Athanasius, in order to be able to build a church in his name with money.

Relics of the fathers St. Bisada and St. Dumadius In the other cell are the relics of the corpse, personal objects and photos from the life of St. Father Andraus of Samueliten (Arabic: القديس أبونا أندراوس الصموئيلي, al-Qiddis Abuna Andraus as Ṣamū'īlī).

Andraus was established in 1887 in the village of el-Gafādūn (Arabic: الجفادون) born in the district of el-Faschn and lost with three years of his eyesight.

Therefore, their visit is only possible for monks and bishops who do not necessarily need to belong to the Coptic Orthodox rite.

The crypt is about eight meters below the current ground level and consists of an anteroom, the narthex, and the church ship.

In an attack in El Idwa near Maghagha on May 26, 2017, on a bus with Coptic Christians who were on their way to the monastery, at least 30 people were killed and about two dozen injured.

[10] A similar incident happened on 2 November 2018, when masked gunmen attacked a convoy of buses heading to the monastery.