14 March 2000 (morning)
We start with breakfast in the Khan al-Khalili restaurant at Mena House and are on the bus by 8:00. The plan is to see Coptic and Islamic sites this morning, the Egyptian Museum this afternoon, and the Khan al-Khalili bazaar tonight.
It’s a hazy day. The median strip of the highway is sand and rubble and the Nile looks small and crowded, cruise boats stacked along its bank. There are fields on islands in the middle of the river.
Moustafa lectures as we go. The most expensive apartments in Cairo overlook the Nile. Maadi is the name of the American district. The Arabic word for Egypt is Misr. Of the 65 million people in Egypt, 15% are Christian. St. Mark brought the gospel to Egypt in A.D. 60.
We pass the Tura limestone quarries, source of the Fourth Dynasty pyramid casing stones. Hundreds of statues, garden ornaments, architectural ornaments, and bags of cement line the roadside in front of each establishment. Freshly worked limestone is as white as snow.
Our bus driver is a whiz. He somehow negotiates the narrow Old Cairo streets and we park near the “M” subway station. The subway is relatively new to Cairo and Moustafa tells us it’s helping ease the traffic nightmare. We’ll have to take his word for it.
Coptic Cairo: brickwork of the Roman fort
We walk through a door in the walls of the so-called “Babylon Fortress” (Roman) and down a narrow alley, irregular limestone cobbles under foot.
First stop is Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Egypt. There’s a sacred well next to the synagogue that’s thought to mark the spot where pharaoh’s wife/daughter plucked Moses from the Nile.
Columns in the synagogue are painted faux marble, the walls are lined with bookcases, and high overhead the windows are stained glass. The pulpit stands smack in the middle of the room. The oldest Torah in existence, written on sheepskin, was discovered in the upstairs library.
Next we retrace our steps a short distance to the Coptic church of St. Sergius. It’s famous because, among other things, one of the interior pillars has a carved cross decoration that dripped blood in 1967 and didn’t stop until prayers were said over it. A piece of protective plastic covers the dark stains and people have written notes, presumably prayers, on scraps of paper and tucked them around the edges.
There’s an underground crypt/sanctuary but it’s filled with water due to the general rise in the water table. Tradition holds that the church was built on the site where the holy family stayed while in exile. In keeping with this theme the church also has “escaping shafts,” used by the congregants during the Roman era for obvious reasons. The ceiling beams are deeply curved, like the inverted hull of a boat, to represent Noah’s ark. A flock of noisy sparrows lives up there.
The “Hanging Church” under restoration
The pulpit is marble and there’s lovely wooden marquetry everywhere, but the painting of Mary and Jesus at the front of the sanctuary is a modern work on velvet and the floor is covered with old carpet. We’re told an interesting bit of trivia: the word Coptic comes from the ancient Egyptian “House of Ptah” – “Ka-a-Ptah.”
Next we go to Al-Muallaka, the “Church of the Virgin” or “The Hanging Church,” so-called because it’s suspended between the towers of the old Roman fort. It’s under restoration so things are torn up, but there’s still plenty to see. Every surface is either painted, carved, or inlaid with mother of pearl. It, too, has an “ark” ceiling, an intricately carved marble pulpit, and escaping shafts.
“Ark” ceiling and icons in the Hanging Church
A bit of symbolism is pointed out to us: the pulpit is decorated on the side with a cross carved inside a circle.
Cross within an Egyptian “shen” sign?
The circle is the ancient Egyptian sign meaning “forever,” therefore the cross within the circle means, “the cross will live forever.” Another interesting tidbit: regular priests in the Coptic Church must be married, but the Coptic Pope cannot be married, so popes come up through the monastic ranks.
Altarpiece of the Hanging Church