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Basilica style, multiple restorations from 5th to 20th centuries, its main interest is the collection of icons and relics.
The Coptic Orthodox Church of St. Barbara is one of the many famous Coptic Orthodox parishes that can be found in the district of Coptic Cairo. The building is located on the eastern part of the Babylon Fortress and is one of the oldest buildings in Cairo, dating back to the 5th or 6th century AD. However, like many other buildings of Coptic architecture, it was rebuilt several times, most notably by the end of the 11th century.
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Established in 1908 and restored in 2015 to a high standard, the museum houses Coptic art and artifacts from Late Antiquity, from the late Roman empire through to the Islamic era and beyond. The presentation is clear in English, French and Arabic with generally well thought-out lighting. The display of mainly stone architectural fragments on the ground floor shows the development of the early fusion between Christian and Egyptian symbolism. They also demonstrate that the early Christian era was much cruder in its use of stone than its Pharaonic ancestors. Several frescoes from the early monasteries are displayed. The tapestries and embroideries on the second floor illustrate more homely but highly developed arts. The building itself is a treat, with elaborate wooden screens called mashrabiyya on the windows and ornately carved wooden arabesque ceilings.
El-Geniza
Egypt's oldest surviving synagogue, dating to the 9th century and housed in the shell of a 4th-century church; restored in the 12th century and continually through to the 20th century. Charming interior but it's most famed for the Geniza Documents, discovered in the basement in 1890. Religious teaching was that old documents may not be discarded or destroyed if they contain the name of God, but reverentially buried. "Geniza" means storeroom and here lay a fabulous archive from the 11th to 13th century, some written by Maimonides, who lived nearby. Cairo's 80,000 Jewish population of a century ago has dwindled to a handful, so Ben Ezra is no longer in use as a synagogue. That means it remains open to visit on Fridays and Saturdays.
Agios Georgios, Mar Girgis
The Church of St. George dates to the 10th century or earlier, but was re-built in the early 20th century after a fire in 1904. Although it's sited in the Coptic quarter and gives its name Mar Girgis to the neighbourhood, it's not a Coptic church, but Greek Orthodox, as a sign at the entrance testily points out. (The Greek lettering is the clue.) Indeed it's the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria: their offices are here but not open to tourists. Unlike the basilica design of most early churches, St George's has an unusual circular ground floor plan (as seen in the photograph), perhaps because it was built over circular Roman ramparts. The remains of bygone Patriarchs can be found downstairs in the church crypt, while out in the cemetery is another Greek Orthodox Church, that of the Dormition of the Virgin. The Festival (or saint's day - "moulid") of St George is celebrated annually here on 23 April.
Abu Serga
One of the oldest churches in Cairo, named for two early Roman martyrs, the interior is remarkable and distinctive. The basilica nave is decorated by 12 columns - 11 white marble and one red granite - and a beautiful iconostasis. It's built over a cavern where, supposedly, the holy family of Mary and Joseph reared the infant Jesus after their flight from Herod into Egypt. The cavern is usually accessible but has sometimes been flooded by groundwater. St Bacchus saint-day and the flight into Egypt are celebrated annually here on 1 June.
St. Maria Church, Arabic: Kineeset al-Muallaqa
This church was built in 690, upon two bastions of the Roman fortress. Its nave is suspended over a passageway. Its wooden roof is supposedly shaped like Noah's ark.
Religious Complex
Established by the Roman emperor Trajan, at the entrance of the former canal to the Red Sea, it became a fulcrum of the Roman occupation. Not long after the fall of the Empire, some of the very first Coptic landmarks were built upon its foundations.