Cave church Cairo Egypt tours, booking, prices, reviews
Cave Church Cairo also known as Saint Simon monastery. It located in the Mokattam mountain in southeastern Cairo, Egypt. In fact, the church is in an area which known as “garbage city”. It is because of the large population of garbage collectors or Zabbaleen live there. In fact, Cave Church Cairo in Egypt indeed is one of the largest churches in the country. Moreover, it is a church where 20,000-plus Christians gather every week. It is to worship and praise Jesus. The church is place that’s home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. In fact, the Zabbaleen are descendants of farmers who started migrating from Upper Egypt to Cairo. It was in the 1940.
Fleeing poor harvests and poverty they came to the city looking for work. They set up makeshift settlements around the city. Moreover, they stuck to their tradition of raising pigs, goats, chickens and other animals. They 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. The organic waste provided an excellent source of food for their animals. In fact, this arrangement worked so well. The successive waves of migrants came from Upper Egypt to live and work. It was in the newly founded garbage villages of Cairo.
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For years, the makeshift settlements of the Zabbaleen moved around the city. They tried to avoid the municipal authorities. Moreover, a large group of Zabbaleen settled under the cliffs of the Mokattam at the eastern edge of the city. It has now grown from a population of 8,000 in the early 1980s to become 30,000 Zabbaleen inhabitants. Egypt is a Muslim majority country. Furthermore, the Zabbaleen are Coptic Christians, at least, 90 percent of them are. Christian communities are rare to find in Egypt. The Zabbaleen prefer to stay in Mokattam within their own religious community. It is even though many of them could afford houses elsewhere.
In fact, Cave church Cairo in Mokattam Village established in 1975. After the establishment of the Cave Church in Cairo, Zabbaleen felt more secure in their location. They only then began to use more permanent building materials. It is such as stone and bricks, for their homes. They given their previous experience of eviction from Giza in 1970. Zabbaleen had lived in temporary tin huts up till that point. In 1976, a large fire broke out in Manshiyet Nasser. It led to the beginning of the construction of the first church below the Mokattam mountain. It was on a site of 1,000 square meters. Several more churches have built into the caves found in Mokattam. the Church of St. Simon is the largest with a seating capacity of 20,000. In fact, the Church of St. Simon in Mokattam is the largest church in the Middle East.
