The Gospel of Matthew records that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, warning him to take the infant Jesus and Mary and flee to Egypt to escape Herod's decree. The family crossed into Egypt and remained until Herod's death — a sojourn that, according to Coptic oral tradition and the writings of Pope Theophilus of Alexandria (4th century), lasted approximately three and a half years.

Their route was not a straight line. They moved from east to west across the Delta, south through the Nile Valley, and deep into Upper Egypt before returning north — leaving behind a trail of places where they rested, drank, prayed, or were sheltered by the land itself. At some sites, churches were built over the very caves they slept in. At others, a tree still grows, or a spring still flows, as a witness to their passage.

This is the trail Al Masar is developing: not an invention, but a rediscovery — the careful restoration and connection of sites that have been pilgrimage destinations for seventeen centuries.