Khan El-Khalili is a major souk (an Arab marketplace), located in the heart of Islamic Cairo. It is an open-air bazaar that is considered to be one of Cairo’s main attractions for locals and for tourists looking for gifts to take home to family and friends. Everything from t-shirts to antiques can be found there. It is claimed to be the oldest open air market in the middle East.
Coptic Cairo is a unique area within Old Cairo that has a concentration of Christian churches and other sites that date from the centuries between the decline of the pharaonic religion and the arrival of Islam when Egypt had a Christian majority. Coptic Cairo is largely built around the fort of Babylon on upon the remains of its walls.
We visited the Coptic section, which contains six churches that date back to the early Christian Era. The Hanging Church, or the Church of the Virgin Mary, was built in the 9th century to ‘hang’ high upon the walls of Babylon. The effect of this ‘hanging’ is now diminished significantly as ground levels have raised around the walls. Deeper into Coptic Cairo there are several other older churches, including the Church of St. Sergius, which dates from the 5th century and was supposedly built upon the site of a crypt where the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) took shelter during there time in Egypt. Even further back is Ben Ezra Synagogue. This is the oldest synagogue in Cairo, founded in the 9th century on what is claimed to be either the site of the Temple of Jeremiah or the site where the pharaoh’s daughter found Moses among the reeds.
We also traveled through some of the Old Cairo areas, which are also known as the Islamic part of the city.
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Keywords:Souk of Khan El Khalili