A dozen salt lakes form a chain here
Wadi Natrun is a natural depression of salt lakes and salt flats lying in the desert west of the Nile Delta, situated off the Giza–Alexandria desert road at approximately km 100. It is a birdwatchers’ paradise brimming with age-old Coptic monasteries, and makes for an excellent day-trip from Cairo. Wadi Natrun became the centre of a series of monastic groups principally in the fourth century AD. Insecurity, the plague and attacks by Bedouin led to the decline of some scattered communities but also led to some centralization of Christians into monasteries, four of which remain populated to the present day.
