The Cave Church of St. Simon

Itinerary:

Visitors Egypt’s tour guide will pick you up from your hotel. They will be holding a sign showing the company’s name (Visitors Egypt Tours).

Move to visit the Monastery of Saint Simon, also known as the Cave Church of Zabbaleen. It is located in the Mokattam Mountain, a short drive through the so called “Garbage City’ – a large population of garbage collectors or Zabbaleen that live there. Several churches have been built into the caves found in Mokattam, First we visit, Saint Simon the Tanner Hall and St. Mark’s Church.

This huge cave was discovered in the year 1974. It was full of hundreds of tons of stones even up to the ceiling of the cave (which is 17 meters high from the ground), and was later prepared to contain two stories: 1. The upper story is the St. Simon the Tanner Hall, with seating capacity of 2000 people for spiritual meetings. The walls are decorated with many wonderful pictures engraved on the rocks representing scenarios from the Bible. 2. The lower story is St. Mark’s Church, which was named after St. Mark the first preacher in Egyptian heritage.

Then we continue and visit the Cathedral of Virgin Mary and St. Simon the Tanner. The church was constructed around in the form of quarter circle to accommodate a few thousands of people and it is the biggest church in the monastery. After the tour transfer back to your hotel.