The Nitrian Desert is a desert region in northwestern Egypt, lying between Alexandria and Cairo west of the Nile Delta.
[1] There were three monastic centres in the Nitrian Desert in Late Antiquity.
Around 330, Macarius the Egyptian established a monastic colony in the Wadi El Natrun (Scetis), far from cultivable land.
He founded a second centre, Kellia, on Anthony's suggestion, deeper into the desert.
[2] Only Scetis in the Wadi El Natrun remains a monastic site today.