Coptic Cairo

So I finally made it to a tourist site! Yesterday I spent a couple hours in Coptic Cairo. Egypt is very proud of its Chritian heritage, which you can read about here. At one point, I wandered away from the main tourist area (big surprise) and ended up walking around the Coptic area, which is walled in. I only got one catcall of "Hello my princess!" Here are some pictures, the captions are on top.

The "Hanging Church", built on top of one of the Roman towers.

Looking back from the steps.

A mosaic in the church showing the holy family fleeing Herod to Egypt.

Inside the church, with the TV showing continuous teachings of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III.

The Hanging church from the outside. The tower on the right is one of the Roman towers, and the church is the newer, white brick. Notice the street level over to the left, there are two people standing.

One of the roads outside the Coptic area:

The church built over the cave where the holy family stayed:

Part of the altar in the church.

This is it! The cave where the holy family came when they were in Egypt.

This is the Greek Orthodox cemetary that the church is in the middle of. You can see the church entrance on the very left of the frame, at the end of the path.

Entrance to St. George's Monastary.

St. George's Church.

The other Roman tower, as seen from the Metro Station exit.

To the left of the tower and directly in front of the Metro Station is the entrance to the Coptic Museum. According to my Lonely Planet book, it's quite good. I didn't have time to go in, so that is for another day.

This is the view of St. George's from the Metro Station platform. The white sign has the name of the stop, which means "Saint George".

And finally, just for kicks - the Metro platform.