Coptic Cairo

Churches, a synagogue and a quarter older than the city around it

A few streets inside the walls of a Roman fortress hold some of the oldest continuously used places of worship in the world. The Hanging Church is built across the gatehouse towers, its nave suspended above the old Roman gate; a short walk away, the Ben Ezra Synagogue stands where, by tradition, the infant Moses was found.

The Coptic Museum next door gathers the icons, textiles and carved woodwork that came out of these churches. The whole quarter is compact enough to see in a morning, and is usually combined with Islamic Cairo on a single day tour.