Cairo’s large round church

Arabnews24.ca:Wednesday 28 September 2022 07:53 AM: On one of the towers of the Babylon Fortress in Old Cairo stands the church of Saint George, which is one of Egypt’s oldest churches dating back to the early Christian era.

This place of worship is also known as Mar Gerges – mar is a Syriac form of address, meaning ‘lord’, which is also applied to saints.

St. George was one of the most famous Christian martyrs and he is famous in the Egyptian and Western churches, says Aya Waleed, PhD researcher in Archaeology and Islamic Arts, Faculty of Archaeology, Fayoum University.

He was born in Constantinople and was martyred in 303 AD during the persecution under Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD).

There is little information about the church’s ancient history, Walid told the Egyptian Mail, but some evidence suggests it dates back to 684 AD, when it was built by a wealthy scribe Athanasius, but the present building was put up in 1904.

The church consists of a spacious quarter hall, including the nave and the two wings. Surrounding the nave from the four corners are big modern columns built mostly of bricks covered with gypsum and painted with green oil colour, on which are based four large arches in the form of a semicircle, and the ceilings of the two wings are flat.

Next are the three structures. Each one is topped by a high dome. Around each of them are four windows with openings through which light can pass through, and in each structure, there is an altar.

The most important of these structures is the black one because it contains an altar topped by a wooden dome based on four delicate and high columns of polished marble. It has drawings representing Jesus the Christ sitting on the throne and around him the angels.

In front of each of the three altars, there is an amphitheatre that takes the form of a semi-circle towards the east, and sacred icons are spread in all the structures.

Covering the three structures is a modern painted wooden screen, on which a set of icons are installed.

There is a room displaying tools of torture with which Saint George was tormented, such as shackles, chains and other tools, and there is also the space in which he was imprisoned.

There is a modern ambon, which is based on the old structure, and there is a newly-built shrine also made of polished red mosaic, and inside it a modern image of St. George, and icons of wood covered with velour.

Saint George Church is located in the area called Mogamma’ el-Adyan (Religious Complex), where many monuments of the three religions stand side-by-side. This tourist attraction can be reached by the underground metro at the stop Mar Gerges.

The complex also includes the Hanging Church, dating back to the 3rd century AD and the fortress of Babylon, which was built in the second half of the 6th century BC. The Coptic Museum, built in 1908, contains the world’s largest collection of Egyptian Christian artefacts.

The cave beneath the Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church, also known as Abu Serga, has been the focus of the greatest interest since it was the place where the Virgin and Christ stayed during their holy journey.

The Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, which had been built north of the Fortress Babylon in 642, is the first in Egypt and the whole of Africa.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue is one of the largest and most important temples in Egypt as its library contains precious books and Jewish periodicals that chronicle the presence of the Jewish community in Egypt as well as an old copy of the Old Testament, it was said that Ezra Prophet had signed it.

Photos by Mohamed Hassan

 

 

 

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