Cave Coptic Church of the Zabbaleen in Cairo, Egypt, Apr.2017

The Monastery of Saint Simon, also known as the Cave Church, is located in the Mokattam mountain in southeastern Cairo, Egypt, in an area that is known as "garbage city",because of the large population of garbage collectors or Zabbaleen that live there. The Zabbaleen are descendants of farmers who started migrating from Upper Egypt to Cairo in the 1940s., but eventually found collecting and sorting of waste produced by the city residents more profitable. The Zabbaleen would sort through household garbage, salvaging and selling things of value, while the organic waste provided an excellent source of food for their animals
The local Coptic Church in Mokattam Village was established in 1975., a site of 1,000 square meters. Several more churches have been built into the caves found in Mokattam, of which the Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner is the largest with a seating capacity of 20,000. like small sport stadium.  In fact, the Cave Church of St. Simon in Mokattam is the largest church in the Middle East. All biblical scenes of Jesus and other Saints was carved in the rocks by one polish Catholic sculptor about 40 years ago. It looks like the church was established 1600 years ago, when the ancient Egyptian accepted Christianity form Byzantium in 4th century.

We visited the small old Coptic churches in old Cairo on first day in Cairo. After our journey to Aswan, Nile and Luxor, visiting all main temples, Pyramids and Sphinx and the Valley of the Kings,  we wet back to Cairo for our flight back home. We were met om the local Airport by our first guide in Cairo  Mr.Sobhi Ibrahim. Coptic Christian and his driver, also Coptic Christian, and delivered with pride to the most interested church, we have ever seen - the Cave Church in the Mokattam  mountain around Cairo. It was Sunday one week before Eastern - The Palm Sunday. The Service was already completed and on the square and the streets around the Church all people were carrying palm leafs in their hands. We entered in the church, looked around, took a lot of photos from outside and inside an took some palm leafs from the altar, which brought in Seattle - me  and Sofia-Margy. All 48 photos taken there are shown in this small album.