Coptic Cairo: Egypt's Christian History Before Islam

Coptic Cairo, a walled district within Old Cairo, preserves the history of Egypt's Christian community, one of the oldest continuous Christian populations in the world, tracing back to the 1st century CE — well before Christianity spread to most of Europe, and centuries before Islam arrived in Egypt in the 7th century.

The district sits inside the walls of a Roman fortress, Babylon, built around 30 BCE, and several of its churches were built directly on top of or within the old fortress structure — the Hanging Church (Al-Muallaqa), one of Egypt's oldest, is literally suspended over the fortress's Roman gatehouse, its nave built above the gate towers. The Church of St. Sergius and St. Bacchus (Abu Serga) is built above a crypt where tradition holds the Holy Family sheltered during their flight into Egypt.

Copts today make up roughly 10% of Egypt's population, and Coptic Cairo remains an active religious and cultural center, not just a historical site — services still run in the churches, and the adjoining Coptic Museum holds the world's largest collection of Coptic Christian art and artifacts. It's a genuinely different side of Egyptian history from the pharaonic and Islamic sites most visitors focus on, and worth an afternoon on any longer Cairo itinerary.