The Mineral Lakes.
These lie between the factory and the monasteries. Some of them are squalid, others are indescribably beautiful, especially in summer. The deposits form at the bottom. As they reach the top, the lake seems to be covered with white and crimson ice, in the midst of which are pools of blue and green water, and trickling streams of claret, and tracts that blush like a rose. When the scene is in mirage, its strangeness passes belief. A bird looks as big as a man, and the lump of salt it perches on shows like a boat of snow. The finest of these lakes is just to the left of Bir Hooker.
The Natrun Monasteries
Plan I. Church Of St. Pschoi
The Natrun Monasteries—Plan II
Convent of the Syrians—Church of the Virgin.
The Monasteries.
Four of these survive, and there are the ruins of many others. They are all of the same type, and to avoid repetitions it may be thus summarised: