The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper EgyptThe Red Monastery church is the most important extant early Christian monument in Egypts Nile Valley, and one of the most significant of its period in the Mediterranean region. A decade long conservation project has revealed some of the best surviving and most remarkable early Byzantine paintings known to date. The church was painted four times during the 5th and 6th centuries, and significant portions of each iconographic program are preserved.