The Coptic Museum
is situated in the former Roman fortress of Babylon
in Egypt and
contains art from the Coptic Christian era from between 300 and 1000 AD. The collection
includes Coptic textiles, carved ivories, papyri (ancient paper) with
text from the Gnostic gospels of Nag Hammadi, and Nubian paintings from the
flooded villages of Lake Nassar.
The ornate rooms are decorated with beautiful mashrabiyya (carved wood)
screens, fountains and painted ceilings.
Al-Muallaqa(Hanging Church)
The “Hanging Church”
is so called because it is built atop a Roman gate and is reached by a stairway
that goes into the courtyard. It is the oldest place of Christian worship in Cairo.
The beautiful interior features three barrel-vaulted aisles, altar screens of
inlaid ivory and bone and an exquisite, carved marble pulpit supported by 13
pillars representing Christ and his disciples.
Church
of St Sergius
Bacchus
This is a 4th Century church, considered the
oldest Christian Church in Cairo,
and is dedicated to two Roman soldier-saints. It is built on the traditional
site that Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus rested after fleeing to Egypt.
The church was burned and then restored in the 8th Century and was
constantly rebuilt and enhanced during the Middle Ages. It remains one of the
earliest examples of Coptic architecture.
Ben Ezra Synagogue
This synagogue is
the oldest place of Jewish worship in Cairo. It is said to be built on the site where
the Prophet Jeremiah gathered Jewish refugees from the conquest of Judea by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.
There is also a spring that is supposed to mark the place where the Pharaoh’s
daughter fought the infant Moses in the boat of reeds. The spring was also
where, tradition states, Mary bathed the baby Jesus.