Marvel at a Coptic Church inside an enormous cave and explore the unique district of the city’s garbage collectors.
with absolutely zero haggling on a private door-to-door tour to one of Cairo’s most unusual sights: El Mokattam Mountain Cave Church. Transformed into a church by the Zabaleen, Christians who earn their living collecting garbage, the upper story alone has space for 2,000 worshipers. Your qualified Egyptologist guide will lead you through the different caves in the complex.
ANY TIME YOU REQUEST US In the morning pick up from your hotel in Cairo and visit the Monastery of Saint Simon, also known as the Cave Church of Zabbaleen. It is located in the Mokattam Mountain, a short drive through the so called “Garbage City’ – a large population of garbage collectors or Zabbaleen that live there.
Several churches have been built into the caves found in Mokattam, First we visit, Saint Simon the Tanner Hall and St. Mark’s Church. This huge cave was discovered in the year 1974. It was full of hundreds of tons of stones even up to the ceiling of the cave (which is 17 meters high from the ground), and was later prepared to contain two floors.
The upper floor is the St. Simon the Tanner Hall, with seating capacity of 2000 people for spiritual meetings. The walls are decorated with many wonderful pictures engraved on the rocks representing scenarios from the Bible.
The lower floor is St. Mark’s Church, which was named after St. Mark the first preacher in Egyptian heritage.Then we continue and visit the Cathedral of Virgin Mary and St. Simon the Tanner. The church was constructed around in the form of quarter circle to accommodate a few thousands of people and it is the biggest church in the monastery. After the tour transfer back to your hotel.