Cairo - Day 2


Our second full day in Cairo — Met our tour guide Mohamed again in the morning and went to Coptic Cairo, part of Old Cairo where the 3 major religions have coexisted peacefully for centuries. We visited “the Hanging Church,” otherwise known as Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church, a church dating back to the 3rd century. It was built on the ruins of a Roman fortress and “hangs” over it with open space underneath. This was also the site where Mary and Jesus hid for several months during her time in Egypt.

Memorials containing the bones of famous martyrs

One of close to 100 icons (religious paintings), some dating back 1700 years!




The site where Jesus supposedly slept as an infant (it looks suspiciously like a pizza oven!)

The second half of our day was spent at the National Museum of Egyptian Culture, which contained most of the mummies of the pharaohs (we must have seen at least 20 of their corpses today!).  No photography allowed in that part unfortunately.  Otherwise, a lot interesting artifacts . . .






Finished with a late lunch at an outdoor restaurant along the Nile. More authentic Egyptian food was had. 
Below is the observation tower on Zamalek Island (across from our restaurant) built by the US in 1968. 

The old Islamic section of the city



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