Cave Church of St. Simon

The church is cut into the Mokattam cliff above Manshiyat Naser, the quarter where Cairo's Zabbaleen community has sorted and recycled the city's waste for generations. The main hall is an open-air amphitheatre carved and blasted out of the rock with tiered stone seating for several thousand people, the largest church space in the Middle East by capacity, and there are six smaller chapels around it in the same cliff. Its patron is Simon the Tanner, a Coptic figure from a tenth-century tradition about the moving of the Mokattam hill. Large reliefs of biblical scenes have been carved directly into the cliff faces by a Polish artist over many years. Getting there means driving through the recycling quarter itself, which is confronting and is also simply where people live and work.

What to look for

• The rock-cut amphitheatre - tiered seating for thousands under open sky.
• Cliff-face reliefs - biblical scenes carved into the living rock.
• Six smaller chapels - cut into the same escarpment.
• The view over Cairo - the city from the Mokattam ledge.

When to go

October to April. Sunday services fill the amphitheatre and are the moment it makes sense, though visitors should sit at the back and be discreet. Weekday mornings are empty and quiet. Two hours including the drive up.

Good to know

The approach runs through a working recycling district with strong smells and heavy truck traffic; it is not a spectacle and photographing residents without asking is not acceptable. The road up is steep and narrow and some drivers refuse it. There are no facilities. Dress modestly.

Nearby

The Citadel is below to the west; Al-Azhar Park lies along the ridge.

Key facts