Many people have wondered where in Egypt Jesus’ parents took Him in order to escape the Murder of the Innocents in Bethlehem ordered by Herod the Great.
There are several theories. Elephantine: Elephantine is an island in the Nile in Upper Egypt (which is southern Egypt) where Nubia begins. There was a Jewish military settlement on Elephantine many hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and it continued in some state or another for a long time. Amazingly, the Jews of Elephantine obtained permission from Jerusalem to build a temple (and you thought there was only one). There are traditions in Egypt that Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Elephantine for safety and to be in a Jewish community.
The ruins on Elephantine via TripAdvisor.com
Actually, at the time Jesus was born, there were lots of Jewish communities in Egypt. Perhaps the largest was in Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. There were about 1 million Jews living in Alexandria when Christ was born. The Romans had built a coastal road from Judea to Egypt along the sea. That was the easiest way to go to Alexandria or Cairo, and a beginning to head south to Elephantine.
Coptic Christianity holds that the family visited several areas in Egypt and there are shrines to mark these holy places. They include Musturud, Wadi El Natrun (where there are 4 monasteries), Old Cairo, Farama, Tel Basta, Samanoud, Bilbais, Samalout, Maadi, and Al-Matariyyah. In Cairo there is a sycamore tree and chapel. The tree was supposed to have been planted over one under which Mary rested.
