Day at the Various Houses of Worship

     Two weeks after visiting the pyramids at Giza, I decided to go visit the various churches located right around the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo. I was under the impression that there was a neighborhood with several Coptic Churches, and there were several, but there was also a Greek Orthodox church and accompanying graveyard, a synagogue, and the oldest mosque in Africa all in close walking distance. I went with a friend of mine who had been before and wanted to go again. We walked over to our closest subway station and rode the quick four stop, five minute ride to the churches. As you walk out of the station, you literally walk out to the old walls of the Babylon Fortress with the entrance to the Hanging Church (El Muallaqa in Arabic) about 50 meters away. The Hanging Church's given name is the Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church and, having been built in the 3rd century, is one of the oldest churches in Egypt. As you can see (on the right) it has an almost Spanish colonial look. The church is so named because it was constructed over the gatehouse of the Babylon Fortress with the nave suspended over a deep passage. Throughout the church, there are windows cut out of the floor where you can look down into the passageways some 20-30 feet below. The original ground level was nearly 20 feet lower than the present ground level, and therefore the staircase you now see was much longer limiting the proper sense of height the elevated building would have had upon being built. To reach the church, you was through a small gate complex, a nice courtyard lined with tiled frescos, up the stairs into a small room with pictures of past Coptic popes, yet another courtyard, and then the church proper.

   
      The church itself was fairly small, but the main highlights, not necessarily for me personally, but for tourists and religious visitors are the icons throughout the area, the original marble pulpit, and the beautiful ebony and ivory inlaid alter walls. I personally dig anything that is carved whether that be wood or stone, so I am always fascinated and appreciative of the work, effort, time, and craftsmanship it takes to complete such a project. The fact that such things survive for us to see hundreds and even thousands of years later will probably never cease to amaze me. Above, Clockwise from the top left, are what I imagine was a guard at the church gate, the doors to the church proper, and a look up through some awnings in the inner courtyard, the inlaid woodwork at the alter, and an alter lamp. Below is part of the alter taken from the aisle. Some of the big iconography was right above this.

     Back outside we decided to put off the Coptic museum since it seemed that it would essentially be packed with more of the iconography that we had just seen. We looked at the Babylon Fortress and read that Roman emperors had built a canal from the Red Sea to the fortress around 100AD and that there was a port suitable to dock ships which seems like yet another remarkable feat. I certainly would like to go back and see see more of the fortress. The Romans were very active building, expanding, and redirecting canals to the fort making it a very important strategic city for many centuries. Below (left) is the remnants of the fortress and (right) the Coptic museum past the walls of the fortress.

     For the rest of the day, we walked around the site seeing a number of churches. Immediately to the left of the fortress is the Greek Orthodox church of St. George, the dragon slayer. The church is (mostly) closed for structural repairs, but we did get to go in a small part of it. Inside there were a number of little cellar like rooms that contained icons and countless pictures of St. George killing a dragon. Also, and I don't know if this is particular to the Greek Orthodox, but there were a large number of torture devises prominently displayed. I'm not sure why they need all that, but the Copts did not have them, so maybe it's just a fetish thing. From St. George's, we walked through the church's graveyard that was a complete mess. It is currently being used, there were people buried there within the last six months, but overall, it was falling apart. There were family tombs that were open, crumbling, and otherwise open with caskets askew, partially covered with debris and visible and accessible to anyone who cared to look. It was a very bizarre, but strangle fascinating at the same time. I was left wondering if any of the family ever came to see the condition of their families, and if so, why they didn't do anything to improve their conditions. I'm pretty much a cremation guy, but I'm pretty sure if I saw a family member's grave open and casket disheveled, I'd get on the stick.

      From there, we dropped down into a below ground, but open-air alleyway that led to the other churches. I gained admittance to the Convent of St.George's. This is significant because it is supposed to be closed to the public and only open to people invited by someone. Apparently the recognized that I am a man of the cloth and welcomed me in when I knocked and asked if we could go in. So, we got to see the chapel that not many get to see. Bam! I got some holy oil from a nun, but, I can bless my own oil, so whatever. We visited St. Barbara's and then Abu Sarga. Abu Sarga is the church built over the crypt where the Holy Family stated when they fled palestine when King Herod was doing his child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang routine. I like to think of little baby Jesus was wearing a tuxedo t-shirt despite the fact that Herod was on his baby killing spree. I guess I'd just like to think that's how he'd roll. There were no picture's allowed, and I couldn't get down into the crypt (I thought about playing my pastor card, but decided not to pull rank), so I peaked down there as best I could. I think stone cellar about covers it. And finally we made our way the the Synagogue of Ben Ezra. The jews apparently purchased it from the Copts when they needed money, and they didn't do much redecorating. It was essentially a Coptic church minus the iconography and a few other Coptic things. Otherwise, it retained the same artwork, inlaid wood, and symbols. They did add their own Jewish pieces, but it was an odd mix of both religions.

     Lastly, we left the Coptic church section of the neighborhood and decided to try to find the Amr Ibn al-As Mosque (above), the oldest mosque in Cairo as well as the oldest anywhere in Africa. It turned out to be very simple to find and was a straight shot about four blocks down the road from the churches. The mosque was virtually empty when we got there and we were welcomed in to take a look around. It is a massive, yet fairly simple open air structure, that was no less impressive despite it's simplicity. It was quiet and beautiful with a handful of non-muslim visitors walking around. there were a number of small groups reading or studying and a few men stretched out sleeping. We were approached by a very pleasant young man who was eager to find out where we were from and asked if we had any questions he could answer. He spent about five minutes giving us a brief history of the mosque and showed us the ancient well that the mosque was built around that was right by where we were standing as well as a column that had been inscribed when the mosque was built. He then took his leave after explaining that he would be happy to answer any questions that we had if we decided we had any later on.

     Right after he left, we were approached by a slightly younger, but much more eager teen who was apparently on a mission to maybe get a convert. Not as smooth, affable, or as socially aware as his predecessor, he spent  much too long working on getting us to join him to learn about Islam. He tried to get us to the mosque's library and video center where we could take any books we wanted for free and watch videos about Islam. Because I was definitely not his guy for this, I had extricated myself early in this process, but my friend was a little too nice to just make a clean break, so I had to go back and be very frank with him about wanting to see and experience his beautiful mosque alone and in peace. He apparently took this well and left us to do so. Above you can see the mosque and its central court (complete with boy in red sleeping), and below, pictures of the interior. The figures in green, who I took to calling gnomes, were women visitors who were asked to be covered during their visit and giving green hooded robes.

    Next up: The Saqqara Necropolis.