Coptic Cairo

In front of one of the towers of the fort.

On Sunday, we opted to go visit Coptic Cairo.  Neither Janelle and I knew all that much about the area, except that it is adjacent (and within) the remains of Babylon, the Roman fortress.  It’s a very small, enclosed space, but we were a bit lost about where to go once we got there.  We decided to play follow the tour groups until we figured out how to get into walled area- it felt like we were going down an alley to be murdered, it was so empty (and you had to go underground to get there).  The winding “streets” reminded me a lot of an Indiana Jones flick. 

We visited two lovely churches, one of which had a wonderful woman who explained to us (for free!) the history of the church.  It was very interesting to hear what they knew about the church- it was very old so some of its history was lost.  It was dedicated to two saints, though there were portraits of many other saints.  The Coptic church is probably closest to Greek Orthodox in terms of dogma- both have lots of saints.  We weren’t able to go into the largest church- which was dedicated to St. George (the saint who killed a dragon).  It came complete with a giant light-up St. George killing a dragon.

We also wandered into the Coptic cemetery.  It was very old, and had many tombs which were very old, many over 100 years.  All were the built tomb type, like what you see in New Orleans.  Many were very beautiful, and very large.  

We also visited the Coptic Museum, which was a beautiful museum, very well done.  It was huge, and had very ornate wooden decorations in the Coptic style throughout the building.  I definitely recommend visiting it if you are in Cairo.  All in all, it was a very interesting visit, though I wish we had had a guide book!  It's the first time we had been somewhere that we didn't know much about, since neither of us specializes in the Coptic period.

Right now we are watching Armageddon on the Action Channel, while we pack.  Tonight, we leave!  We are so excited!