Sacred 2,000-Year-Old Tree Cut Down

ByABC News
January 25, 2001, 7:23 PM

G E B E L   E L-T E I R, Egypt, Jan. 25 -- A tree Egypt's Christians believe bowed before Christ has been cut down in a tussle over land, a priest says.

"I regret that authorities were not able to protect a 2,000-year-old tree that was such an important monument for us," Father Matta Kamel Hanna, whose church overlooks the spot near the Nile where the tree stood, told The Associated Press today.

He said farmers, fearing the government was planning to encroach on their land to build a protective wall, had cut down the Worshipping Tree earlier this month.

Local Farmers Mum

The tree lay in sections along the main road from Cairo, but local farmers refused to discuss what had happened. News about the destruction began emerging over the weekend, when pilgrims from Cairo visited the site near Gebel el-Teir, about 200 miles south ofthe capital.

Police in the area, and antiquities department officials in Cairo contacted by the AP, said they had no knowledge of the incident. Matta said he had reported the destruction to the antiquities department and was awaiting a response.

Coptic tradition holds that the tree, a type of acacia with branches that sweep the ground, bowed in homage to Christ when he, Joseph and Mary passed through Egypt to escape the murderous King Herod.

Copts, adherents of one of the world's oldest Christian sects, account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 65 million. Most Egyptians are Muslim.

Troubling Rumor

Coptic pilgrims regularly visited the Worshipping Tree and had been welcomed by the Muslim farmer on whose land the tree stood, its thick branches covered by dark green leaves spreading out over an area as large as several living rooms.

Trouble began when rumors spread that the government planned to build a wall around the tree, Matta said. The tourism ministry last year began a campaign to protect and develop Egyptian sites associated with Christ's journey.

A Bible verse says the Holy Family fled to Egypt from Bethlehem, but offers no details of their sojourn.