Coptic Cairo & Hanging Church Tour

A Coptic Cairo Tour covers a small area with an unusually dense concentration of religious history, all within walking distance inside the walls of the old Roman fortress of Babylon. The Hanging Church, suspended above the fortress's gatehouse, is one of Egypt's oldest churches, its interior lined with icons and carved wood screens dating back centuries.

Close by, the Church of St. Sergius marks the traditional site where the Holy Family is said to have sheltered during their flight into Egypt. The Ben Ezra Synagogue, a short walk further, is where a 19th-century discovery of thousands of preserved documents known as the Cairo Geniza gave historians an unmatched record of Jewish life in medieval Egypt.

The Coptic Museum, housing the largest collection of Coptic art, textiles, and manuscripts in the world, rounds out the visit with pieces spanning the earliest centuries of Christianity in Egypt through the Islamic period. A guide familiar with the district's layered religious history leads the way, with lunch at a nearby restaurant closing out the morning.