Coptic Cairo Trip To Cave Church of Saint Simon

You will be met at the airport by Cairo Top Tours representatives and transferred to Mokattam. Mokattam Mountain in Egypt is associated with many stories, some religious and others historical. There are also stories that were formulated by the collective popular mind, both Muslim and Christian. Learn with our guide about the most important stories of Mokattam Mountain, a haven for monks and Sufis alike.

The monk explained that the church was officially established on April 13, 1974, after the Cairo governor decided in late 1969 to move Cairo's garbage collectors to a remote area on one of the peaks of Mokattam Mountain to live there. He points out that this area and its oddities caught the attention of a Polish tourist named Mario, who came to visit Egypt years ago and felt the desire to stay in the monastery. 

During his stay, he was able to carve a wooden tablet of Saint Simon the Tanner. When Father Simon, the church's pastor and head of the monastery, admired him, he asked him to carve statues telling the lives of the saints inside the rocks, to serve as an exhibition telling their stories to visitors to the place. He settled in Egypt and lived inside the monastery, married an Egyptian woman from Upper Egypt, and devoted himself to carving the rocks of this mountain, which turned into a museum for statues of saints.

Farouk Sharaf, an international restoration expert, points out in his study on the history and architecture of the monastery that Samaan al-Dabbagh lived in the tenth century in Egypt during the rule of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mu'izz, and during the reign of the Coptic patriarch Abram the Syrian (975-979 AD). Little is known about the details of his life except that he is one of the saints of the Coptic Orthodox Church, where he is attributed, according to church tradition, with the miracle of moving or moving Mount Mokattam, through Coptic church sources.

Learn more about this monastery and after taking photos and enjoying its interior, you will be transferred back to the airport or to your hotel.