Natron Lakes, eight in number, are in a depression to the west of the Damietta branch of the Nile. The locality is renowned for four monasteries, from whose libraries of Arabic, Coptic, and Syriac MSS. various European collections have been enriched. In the time of St Pachomius 5000 anchorites dwelt here.
Natron Lakes,
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 7: Maltebrun to Pearson, p. 407
Source scan(s): p. 0416