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Monday 4 January 2010
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Egypt Place, Old & Coptic Cairo
Originally a Roman fortress town called Babylon, this part of Cairo was of a great importance to the early Christians. Egypt was one of the first countries to embrace the new Christian faith in the 1st century AD. The fortress was built about 900 years before the Fatimids founded Cairo, on a then-strategic point on the Nile. The river has since shifted its course about 400 meters west.
The development of Coptic Christianity, and the monastic tradition it adopted after Paul of Thebes chose a life of solitude in the Egyptian desert, greatly influenced early European Christianity. But for Egypt the Christian period was merely one of transition from Pharaonic times to Islamic era.
During the several centuries that Christianity did predominate in Egypt, this town, only five km south of where the Muslims would later built their city, and became quite a metropolis. It was considered a holy place not only by the Copts but by the Jews and later the Muslims who lived in the area. At one time there were 20 churches and a synagogue there. The Christian monuments of Old Cairo that have survived the centuries are still very important to the Copts. There are also several mosques in the area and Cairo small Jewish population still worships at the ancient synagogue. The Old Cairo terminus is north of the Coptic Museum near the Mosque of Amr.
The Coptic Museum
The fortress’s tower now marks the entrance to the tranquil courtyards and lush, verdant gardens of the Coptic Museum. The Museum building is paved with mosaics and decorated with elegant mashrabiyyah screens from old Coptic houses, and is bright and airy. Its exhibits cover Egypt’s Christian era from 300 to 1000 AD, showing the Pharaonic, Greco-Roman and Islamic influences on the artistic development of the Copts. It is the world’s finest collection of the Coptic religious and secular art. The icons and textiles are particularly interesting, and there are also splendid examples of stonework, manuscripts, woodwork, metalwork, glass, paintings and pottery.
During the several centuries that Christianity did predominate in Egypt, this town, only five km south of where the Muslims would later built their city, and became quite a metropolis. It was considered a holy place not only by the Copts but by the Jews and later the Muslims who lived in the area. At one time there were 20 churches and a synagogue there. The Christian monuments of Old Cairo that have survived the centuries are still very important to the Copts. There are also several mosques in the area and Cairo small Jewish population still worships at the ancient synagogue. The Old Cairo terminus is north of the Coptic Museum near the Mosque of Amr.
The Coptic Museum
The fortress’s tower now marks the entrance to the tranquil courtyards and lush, verdant gardens of the Coptic Museum. The Museum building is paved with mosaics and decorated with elegant mashrabiyyah screens from old Coptic houses, and is bright and airy. Its exhibits cover Egypt’s Christian era from 300 to 1000 AD, showing the Pharaonic, Greco-Roman and Islamic influences on the artistic development of the Copts. It is the world’s finest collection of the Coptic religious and secular art. The icons and textiles are particularly interesting, and there are also splendid examples of stonework, manuscripts, woodwork, metalwork, glass, paintings and pottery.