MONASTIC LANDSCAPES

This article considers the impact of late antique monasticism on the landscape in three regions of the eastern Mediterranean: Egypt, Palestine and Sinai. It investigates both new landscapes created by monasticism and older landscapes strongly modified by a monastic presence. In the case of new landscapes, monastic structures found in each locality are described, and then their articulation within the wider landscape is considered, in terms of: their physical appearance against the local geology, the density of hermitages, their location, their use of roads or tracks to intercommunicate, and their development of agricultural structures. We know less about monasteries set in pre-existing landscapes, but their physical appearance, visiblity and relative concentration can still be considered.