Half Day Community of Religions at Old Cairo

Take an alternative look at Egypt and visit Old Cairo “home to the capital’s Christian centre. This half day tour takes in The Old Churches, Coptic Monasteries, Amr ibn alas Mosque and The Ben Ezra Synagogue, pointing to the diversity that can be found in Egypt’s capital.

Visit the old churches, Coptic monasteries, Amr ibn alas Mosque & the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, the eldest district in the Egyptian capital, which was formerly the City of Phas built by Amr Ibn ElA’as. In later centuries, Romans built the fortress Babylon in the area, remnants of which still exist. Later, Old Cairo became the center of Christianity in Egypt, with as many as 20 churches built within an area of one square mile. Only five of these historic churches remain today, nestled between many other ancient monuments that decorate the quarter.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue, located in Cairo center, was built by the chief rabbi in Jerusalem Abraham Ben Ezra in the late 9th century within the walls of the Fortress of Babylon (as Old Cairo was known in ancient times). The basilica-style temple is home to a Jewish heritage library, which includes a Torah on gazelle skin dating back to the fifth century BC and an «Atlas of Moses» manuscript. The synagogue is known principally for its storeroom, or Geniza, which housed a rich store of political, economic, and social books and manuscripts about the condition of Jews under Arab rule in Egypt in the Middle Ages.

The Mosque of Amr was originally built in 642 AD, as the center of the newly-founded capital of Egypt, Fustat The original structure was the first mosque ever built in Egypt, and by extension, the first mosque on the continent of    Africa.

The Hanging Church (El Muallaqa) is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the history of a church on this site dates to the 3rd century AD.

The Hanging (The Suspended) Church is named for its location above a gatehouse of Babylon Fortress, the Roman fortress in Old Cairo; its nave is suspended over a passage. The church is approached by 29 steps; early travelers to Cairo dubbed it «the Staircase Church.» The land surface has risen by some 6 metres since the Roman period so that the Roman tower is mostly buried below ground, reducing the visual impact of the church's elevated position. The entrance from the street is through iron gates under a pointed stone arch. The nineteenth-century facade with twin bell towers is then seen beyond a narrow courtyard decorated with modern art biblical designs. Up the steps and through the entrance is a further small courtyard leading to the eleventh-century outer porch.