ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which the archaeological remains of two important late antique pilgrimage sites are able to offer insights into the phenomenological experience of ancient pilgrims. It argues that the sites themselves prescribed the movement of pilgrims in ways that enabled the construction of meanings and narratives through individual sensory experience. The cult of Saint Menas was perhaps the most popular in all of late antique Egypt. Its centre, Abu Mena, housed the saint's tomb and attracted pilgrims from the local area, but also from further abroad, who were visiting the many loca sancta of the Holy Land. Once the sanctuary itself was reached, it was accessed by squeezing through a triple gateway in the enclosure wall onto a more gently ascending lower terrace. Crossing this open square, pilgrims were again squeezed through a double passageway in the buildings at the southern extreme of the main complex.
