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.
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.
Next up: The Saqqara Necropolis.