Transport Minister Hany Dahy said that he agreed with Pope Tawadros to construct the Fayoum-Oasis Road through the Wadi Al-Rayan monastery and open the ancient water well for everybody to visit.
He said the pope would not object to development projects that serve all Egyptians, but it is the monks of the monastery who protested the project. “I will welcome any solutions they suggest,” he said.
Mohamed Abdel Latif, head of the Antiquities Ministry’s Islamic Monuments department, said a committee is inspecting the monastery to determine if it should be registered as an antiquity.