Hanging Church Cairo Egypt 2021 Tours - Maranatha Tours

The Hanging Church is named for its location above a gatehouse of Babylon Fortress, the Roman fortress in Coptic Cairo (Old Cairo); its nave is suspended over a passage. The church is approached by twenty-nine steps; early travelers to Cairo dubbed it "the Staircase Church".

The entrance from the street is through iron gates under a pointed stone arch. The nineteenth-century facade with twin bell towers is then seen beyond a narrow courtyard decorated with modern art biblical designs. Up the steps and through the entrance is a further small courtyard leading to the eleventh-century outer porch.

www.Maranathatours.com 

The Hanging Church is the most famous Coptic Christian church in Cairo, as well as possibly the first built in basilican style.

The church is the site of several reported Marian apparitions. She is said to have appeared in a dream to Pope Abraham in the 970s in the story of how the Mokattam was moved by the faith of Simon the Tanner.

No Maranatha Tours, Tour is complete without one of our favorite guides Essam Zeid (Sam)! More knowledge of Cairo and Old Cairo than you can imagine. Always bringing the Christian emphasis to all of the sites we visit, especially the Hanging Church!

The Hanging Church was probably built during the patriarchate of Isaac (690–692), though an earlier church building may have elsewhere existed dating as early as the 3rd or 4th century. However, the earliest mention of the church was a statement in the biography of the patriarch Joseph I (831–849), when the governor of Egypt visited the establishment. The church was largely rebuilt by the Pope Abraham (975–978) and has seen many other restorations including an extensive repair and restoration of the church and its surroundings completed in 2011.