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Minţaqat az Zarāyib

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    • Greece, Egypt and Jordan
      Day 20

      A visit to St Simon the Tanner Church

      January 9, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

      There was a terrific storm last night. It wasn't forecast - it came out of nowhere! There was thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. By this morning, though, the bad weather had gone and we had sunshine 🌞 and blue skies again.

      We met Ray in reception at 10am for our half-day trip to the cave church at El-Mokattam Mountain. Our itinerary was for us to go to the Pharaonic Village, a living museum of Egyptian history. Ray advised us that this is an attraction mainly aimed at children and offered us the chance to go to Saint Simon the Tanner Church instead. We agreed.

      There was no mention of the place in my guidebook and I struggled to find much information online, so we went not knowing what to expect. What we found was a huge surprise!

      The first shock was driving through the Zabbaleen Village on El-Mokattam Mountain in order to reach the church. This is where the rubbish collectors of Cairo live. The city governor moved them all there in 1969, insisting that all of Cairo's waste was sorted and disposed of in the same place. By 1987, there were 15,000 people living in the village, the vast majority of them Coptic Christian. I didn't get an answer from Ray as to why only 5% of the population are Muslim.

      The 'village' today supports a thriving community with shops, businesses, and schools within its confines. The overriding impression, though, is of the rubbish everywhere. The place is dark with a pervasive smell of rotting waste. The roads are not tarmaced. Instead, you appear to be driving on top of a build-up of waste. Ray told us that all the rubbish is sorted. Everything that can be recycled is. Everything else is burned. Through heavy metal doors at street level, we caught glimpses of people (mainly women) up to their waists in rubbish, sorting it into different piles. The rooms were dark and filthy. I can only imagine what it must be like to work in there for hours every day! The whole place was a grim reminder of how some people have to live.

      Once through the village, we climbed the mountain to reach the church of the Virgin Mary and St. Simon the Tanner.

      Simon the Tanner lived toward the end of the tenth century and, according to local legend, was responsible for the miracle of moving a mountain 300 metres. El-Mokattam is the mountain in question.

      In the 1980s, with a growing population of Christian rubbish collectors who had nowhere to worship, it was decided to build a church in one of the caves on the mountain. At the start of the project, the chosen cave had a ceiling height of just one metre. Over five years from 1986 to 1991, stone was removed from the site and a church with 21,000 seats was created!

      We had to have one of the three official site guides to explain things to us. Mina was clearly a fervent believer as he told us how some of the sculptures in the church revealed themselves as stone was removed. Relics belonging to Simon the Tanner himself were found on the site and are now displayed in a glass case near the altar.

      Whatever you believe, the fact is that there is now a massive, impressive church sitting on top of a mountain dedicated to rubbish!

      The site has an evangelical mission, with bible verses carved into to rock in both Arabic and English.

      Because the church of St Simon the Tanner is half open to the elements, a further cave church has been created further up the mountain. It is known as 'the winter church' and is dedicated to Saint Mark. This church is totally enclosed and can seat 2,000 people. It came into use in 2001 and has elaborate stone carvings around the walls.

      The whole effect of both churches is completely mind-blowing! We have never seen anything like it before. We struggled to make sense of what we were seeing. I don't know if the photos convey the scale of the place. I will attach photos 📸 of the main church to this footprint 👣, and of St Mark's Church to the next one.

      After our visit, Ray wanted to take us for another schwarma lunch - no doubt at highly inflated prices! We said we were still full after a big breakfast (true!) and asked to go back to the hotel 😀      Read more

    • skip's retirement travelEgypt
      Day 28

      Monastery of Saint Simon the Tanner

      May 6, 2021 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

      This is a Coptic monastery named for the 10th century saint and is located in the Zabbaleen community in Cairo. Zabbaleen means garbage collector, and this neighborhood at the base of the Moqattam cliffs is the center for collection and recycling of Cairo's waste. This community is overwhelmingly Coptic, and as that community developed, this monastery was founded as their spiritual heart.
      There are 3 churches here, and I'm writing a post for each of them. The pictures here are of the rest of the site, mostly of the beautiful carvings on the cliff walls. I'll leave you to recognize the biblical scenes in the carvings. The only hint I'll give is the 2nd picture, written in Arabic, is exactly what the 2 tablets suggest.      Read more

    • skip's retirement travelEgypt
      Day 28

      The Church of Saint Simon the Tanner

      May 6, 2021 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

      This is the main church at the monastery, and is considered to be about the largest church in the middle east. It seats 20,000 worshippers. The pictures are of the space and the carvings.
      The 1st picture looks up the amphitheater from all the way down front. The next 2 pictures are of the front, deep in the cave. The was the original part of this church that was built. The remaining pictures are of the artwork. Again, I leave them for your discernment.Read more

    • skip's retirement travelEgypt
      Day 28

      The Church of Saint Marcus

      May 6, 2021 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

      This is sometimes called the winter church as it is more enclosed and protected from the weather than the larger Saint Simon Church, and most of the seasonal rain occurs during the winter. This smaller church seats "only" 2,000.
      The 1st picture is at the gate, while the 2nd is beyond the gate and just outside the door to the church. The 3rd looks across the 2,000 seats, showing the expanse of this "smaller" church. Again, the rest are of the art in stone.      Read more

    • skip's retirement travelEgypt
      Day 28

      The Church of St Paul and St Anthony

      May 6, 2021 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

      This is the smallest of the 3 churches at the monastery. Saints Paul and Anthony are two of the original desert fathers. It is said that a bird would bring a half loaf of bread to Saint Paul each day. When Anthony reached Paul, the bird brought a whole loaf every day they were together. So this church has 2 altars to commemorate this double feeding of the saints.
      The 1st 3 pictures look around the small (this one really is small) church. The 4th is of the Saint Paul altar while the last is the Saint Anthony altar.      Read more

    • Adventures With NachelRound the world 2016
      Day 193

      Our first 12 hours in Egypt

      June 9, 2016 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

      We arrived in Egypt just 12 hours ago (2:40 AM local time) and have already seen so much! Granted, we need a solid night of sleep before the adventure continues, but with only seven days here and most tourist locations closing at 3 PM due to Ramadan, we couldn't waste today. We were pleasantly greeted by Rachel's mom in the hotel lobby despite it being the middle of the night. As an adventure for herself as well as birthday presents for us, Linda is here and set up some amazing sight-seeing in this historic country.

      We did manage to sleep a few hours before we headed to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo. It was so cool! The museum displays just 1/10th of the artifacts that Egypt currently possesses from ancient times, not to mention the tons of artifacts taken to other countries by early archaeologists nor what was stolen and sold on the black market long ago. We were given a guided tour of the highlights before being left to our own devices for two and a half hours. We certainly kept busy during our visit. It's a pretty big building and every room is chock full of artifacts, so a full day would be recommended to others with similar interests as us (history, art, culture, antiquities, etc). Truly every room was amazing, but some of the highlights included the royal mummies, huge stone statues on the first floor, smaller statues with the original paint on them (still fairly vibrant), and nearly everything that was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the first quarter of the twentieth century (to which we are headed later this week).

      Better known as King Tut, Tutankhamun is significant for two major reasons. The first is that his predecessor is known as somewhat of a heretic for abandoning the worship of Amun and their pantheistic religion in favor of the singular god Aten. This is an extremely interesting period of Egyptian history that we recommend you look up online if you are intrigued. King Tut was born Tutankhaten (note: "Aten") and changed the suffix on his name after coming to power and returning ancient Egyptians to the worship of Amun and the rest of the pantheon of gods. The second reason he is significant, and probably the more well known reason, is that his was the only tomb discovered in a relatively undisturbed state; there had been no successful grave robberies of King Tut's tomb before Howard Carter rediscovered it, partially due to the fact that the tomb was later covered by that of another pharoah. Thus, it is an archaeological gold mine (literally and figuratively) in that it serves as a more accurate window to the past, allowing us to see a complete collection of what might be in just one young pharaoh's tomb. It was truly astonishing to see how many riches and items were included in this nineteen year old's burial chamber as well as learn about the intricate funereal techniques that were common for royals and the wealthy.

      Now we are headed up to the pool for a bite to eat and some swimming before sunset. Tomorrow, we visit the pyramids and sphinx in Giza! Life dreams coming true!!!!! :)      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Minţaqat az Zarāyib, Mintaqat az Zarayib, منطقة الزرايب

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