Visit the Monastery of St. Simon or the El Mokattam Mountain Cave Church as part of a private tour that also includes some of the magnificent Coptic churches in Cairo.
Along with seeing some of Cairo’s most important Christian sites, like the Hanging Church, the Church of Saint Barbara, and the Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church, you’ll also get a closer look at ‘trash city,’ a
fascinating area of Cairo that most visitors completely overlook.
Initial Point
places to stay in Cairo or Giza
arriving at
at 8:00 am
Duration
5 to 6 hrs
Information on Returns
similar pick-up location
Additional Details
A confirmation email is received when a reservation is made.
An adult must be with children at all times.
The dress code is sophisticated casual, and tour guides in Cairo (live) speak a variety of languages.
English and Spanish
SAINT SIMON’S CAVER CHURCH AND THE OLD CAIRO CHURCHES
By 8:00 am, you must be ready in the lobby of your hotel in Cairo.
Your name will be posted on a sign and your knowledgeable tour guide will be there to greet you.
You will first visit the “Cave Church” in Egypt, one of the largest churches in the country, where over 70,000 Christians gather each week to worship and give thanks to Jesus and the site of one of the first Christian communities in history.
The cave, also known as the Monastery of Saint Simon, is located in southeast Cairo’s Mokattam mountain, in a region known as “garbage city” because to the sizeable Zabbaleen (waste collectors)
community that calls it home.
The Zabbaleen are farmers who moved to Cairo from Upper Egypt in the 1940s.
They fled disastrous harvests and poverty by moving to the city in search of work and creating impromptu villages all throughout the city.
As was customary, they first kept raising pigs, goats, chickens, and other animals, but they soon
realized that gathering and sorting rubbish produced by city dwellers was more lucrative.
The organic waste provides a good source of food for their animals, while the Zabbaleen dig through trash to discover precious items to salvage and sell.
In fact, this arrangement was so successful that more waves of migrants from Upper Egypt arrived to live and work in Cairo’s newly constructed rubbish communities.
Visit Old Cairo to see the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the Hanging Church, and the Church of Abu-Sergah and St.
Barbara, among of the Middle East’s oldest Christian churches dating back to 300 AD.
then proceed to return to the hotel at about 1:00 p.m.
