r and
Middle Egypt: it at first consisted of scattered cells. To visit
some of these brethren, he is mentioned by St. Athanasius (Vit. p.
461) to have crossed the Arsinotic canal, extremely infested with
crocodiles. This is sometimes called his monastery near the river,
and was situated not far from Aphroditopolis, the lower and more
ancient city of that name, in Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt. St.
Athanasius seems to place it in Thebais, or Upper Egypt, because it
was near the borders, and the boundaries of Upper Egypt were
extended much lower by those who divided Egypt only into two parts,
the Upper and the Lower; as Sozomen, l. 2, c. 23, and others,
frequently did. St. Antony, finding this solitude grow too public,
and not bearing the distraction of continual visits, he travelled up
the river to seek a more remote wilderness; but after mounting a
little way, while he sat on the bank waiting to see a boat pass by,
he changed his design, and instead of advancing southward, he went
with certain Saracen merchants to the East, and in three days,
doubtless on a camel, arrived at the great mountain towards the Red
Sea, where he spent the latter years of his life; yet he frequently
visited his first monastery, near Aphroditopolis. St. Hilarion going
from this latter to St. Antony's great monastery on the mountain,
performed that journey in three days, on camels, which a deacon,
named Baisan, let to those who desired to visit St. Antony. This
latter, near which the saint died, always continued a famous
pilgrimage.

Pispir was the monastery of St. Macarius, but is sometimes called
St. Antony's, who often visited it. This was situated on the Nile,
in Thebais, thirty measures or [Greek: semeia] from St. Antony's
mountain, according to Palladius, (Laus. c. 63.) This some
understand of Roman miles, others of Egyptian schaeni of thirty
furlongs each; thirty schaeni are nine hundred stadia, or one hundred
and thirteen miles. Pispir therefore seems not to have been very far
from Aphroditopolis. See Kocher, (comment. In fastos Abyssinorum,)
in the journal of Bern, ad an. 1761, t. 1, p. 160 and 169.

A monastery, of which St. Antony is titular saint, still subsists a
little above the ancient city of Aphroditon on the Nile. It is now
called Der-mar-Antinious-el-Bahr, that is, The monastery of Anto