Coptic Cairo

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I spent the afternoon in Old Cairo today, which is also known as Coptic Cairo and is where most of the Christian churches/sites are. I think this is actually my favorite part of Cairo so far. Just for some background, Coptic Christianity is the oldest denomination of Christianity in the world and exists almost exclusively in Egypt (about 10% of Egypt's population, so a substantial minority). It was started in the first century A.D. when St. Mark came to Egypt and made some of the first converts to Christianity.

The Coptic quarter itself is not really that big, maybe the size of 4 or 5 city blocks. It's surrounded by the Roman walls, which were erected originally as part of the Babylon Fortress in the 6th century BC. Some of the fortress is still intact; I took some pictures. I went to the Coptic Museum within the fortress compound, and it was probably the coolest museum I have ever been to. It's got an enormous collection of Christian art, and most of the oldest specimens of Christian art. A lot of the artifacts were friezes, panels, and carvings excavated from ancient monasteries in Egypt. I was shocked by how well-preserved the paintings were, even the ones done on wood panels, and I'm still not sure how or why they were in such good condition. The museum displayed chronologically the introduction and development of Christianity in Egypt through these carvings, in addition to a vast array of textiles, tapestries, and writings. It was interesting to see how the early carvings (1st-2nd century AD) featured a combination of Christian symbols and pagan (Greek mythology) symbols, and how these symbols and icons evolved over time in the art. Much of the art was Greco-Roman influenced, but there were pieces from the Ottoman and Byzantine time periods as well.

What really floored me though were the writings. The Coptic Museum featured the oldest book. In the world. It was discovered south of Cairo relatively recently and is David's Book of Psalms, written in the Coptic Language, dating from somewhere in the second half of the 4th century AD. That is an ooolllllddd book. They also had the oldest Arabic translation of the four Gospels, which dated to the 12th century if I remember correctly. It was oddly interesting seeing Christian art mixed with Arabic symbols and writing. No cameras were allowed in the Coptic Museum, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

After the museum we explored the rest of the quarter, which essentially consists of a handful of really old churches and a couple of cemeteries. I saw the Hanging Church (al-Muallaqa), which dates back originally to the 3rd century AD but has been destroyed and rebuilt a few times. The Monastery and Church of St. George is next door, and both the Hanging Church and St. George's are built into the Babylon fortress/Roman walls. Next door to St. George's was a staircase down to a small entrance that opened up into an ancient alley. This, I thought, is Old Cairo. Just after entering the alley we came upon the Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga), which is built on the site of the alleged spot that the Holy Family took shelter at the end of their journey into Egypt. We actually went under the church too, into an old chapel that looked like a place they might have stayed, but we accidentally wandered into an adjacent convent and the nuns kicked us out before we could explore much further. I went into the church of St. Barbara as well, but at this point I was incapable of differentiating between churches and it started all looking the same so we checked out a Greek Catholic cemetery next door. The cemetery was beautiful, with massive mausoleums lining the neatly landscaped gardens.

One other thing I noticed about Coptic Cairo is that there are mosques surrounding it on all sides, seemingly intentionally. When the midday call to prayer went up, the muezzins really belted it out, evidently to remind the Copts that this is still Muslim territory.

Islamic Cairo tomorrow, perhaps? If so, you'll be hearing about it.

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