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Published: June 30th 2009
Another hidden gem of Cairo is the "cave churches" cut into the Muqattam Hills limestone. On the outskirts of Cairo beyond the Salah Salem Ring Road, is where much of the city's rubbish is collected and sorted. A town has built up here, known as Manshiyet Nasr or Medinet iz-Zabaleen (Rubbish collectors' City). Some history: When Christian Egypt was invaded by Islamic armies in 940AD, Egyptian Christians who did not convert had to pay a tax for the privilege of living as Christians within an Islamic society. As a result, many Christians became poor slum dwellers, collecting and sorting garbage and onselling recyclables to make a living. Although Muslims are forbidden to eat pork or keep pigs, the Christians supplemented their income by raising pigs on food scraps. Although there are several "garbage cities" in Cairo, Manshiyet Nasr is the largest and was first established here in 1969 when the governor at the time decided to locate the city's rubbish collectors together in the Muqattam Hills. At the time, there were no buildings or services, or planning of the town, which developed into a shanty of tin shacks with attached animal pens. As the result of a fire in 1976, the
Mark 18:9-10
"For I am with you, and no-one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."town was rebuilt and planned out properly and this was when the first church was built. They have now built seven churches into the hills. As the local population outgrows the churches, more are built further along. The largest church has a capacity of 20,000 and is already near its capacity.
Several churches are named after the Coptic Saint Simeon the Tanner who lived in Fatimid Cairo. The Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz li-Din Allah challenged Christians to prove the validity of their religion by fulfilling the verse "whoever has faith as big as a mustard seed can move a mountain", if they should fail the penalty was forced emigration, conversion or death. A tanner called Simeon was chosen by Pope Abram to perform the miracle, and as the story goes, several earthquakes occured as he prayed and caused the mountain to visually move. The mountain was called "Muqattam", which means "cut up". When the new church was built, St Simeon's relics were brought up from the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo.
Today, the rubbish collectors collect garbage from buildings around Cairo and bring it back to their homes for sorting. Recyclables are onsold and organic materials kept as animal
food. Non-recyclable materials are burnt or added to the dump. This community was until recently home to a large number of Egypt's pigs. These were slaughtered in Egypt's recent swine flu pandemic - never mind that swine flu is not spread by pigs - devastating to an already struggling neighbourhood. Visiting this little known monument, we felt the same way we did while at the Northern Cemetery - one of the most beautiful places in Cairo yet kept hidden away from the public eye to avoid obvious questions about the lives of those living there. Our taxi driver hadn't been there before either and it was fun to see him so clearly impressed with what he saw and asking locals about the churches. Later on, after he had parked the car, we looked over the top of the wall at St Simeons and saw him sitting in the shade reading his Koran, almost as though he was concerned he might get a sudden urge to convert! A thoroughly enjoyable morning and again well worth the effort to get here.
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V Boyd
non-member comment
Fabulous!
When /if we ever get to visit you in Egypt we MUST get to see this