Cave Church Cairo: the St Simon the Tanner Monastery in Mokattam

What the Cave Church in Cairo is

The Cave Church is the largest church of the Monastery of St Simon the Tanner, known in Arabic as Deir Samaan. The monastery sits high on the Mokattam hills, above the district where the Zabbaleen live. Its main church is built as a quarter circle around the altar, cut into the hillside.

The monastery holds several churches and halls, most of them in caves that were cleared out from the 1970s onwards. The rock walls of St Simon's Hall are carved with large scenes from the Bible. Everything you see is modern. The oldest parts date from 1974, so come for living Coptic faith and a church cut into a cliff. For ancient churches, Coptic Cairo is the place.

The monastery's own website describes the cathedral as built in a quarter circle to hold a few thousand people. You will see much bigger figures online, some as high as 20,000. We quote the church's own wording because the other numbers do not agree with each other.

St Simon the Tanner and the moving of the Mokattam hill

The church is named after Simon the Tanner, a 10th-century Christian of Old Cairo who worked as a tanner and shoemaker. The monastery dates the miracle linked to him to 979 AD. The story is widely known in the Coptic Church.

In that story, the Fatimid caliph al-Muizz challenged Pope Abraham, the 62nd Coptic patriarch. He asked him to prove a verse in the Gospel of Matthew. The verse says faith can move a mountain. The Copts fasted and prayed for three days. Simon then told the patriarch what to do, and the Mokattam hill was lifted.

The story still shapes the Coptic calendar. The monastery's website says Pope Abraham added those three days to the fast before Christmas. That is why it runs to 43 days. The smallest church in the monastery is named after him.

Simon's remains were found in 1991, during restoration of the Church of the Virgin in Babylon el-Darag, Old Cairo. They were moved to the Cave Church on 11 July 1992. They lie in front of the altar, on the right, beside a clay pot found with them and believed to be his.

The Zabbaleen and Garbage City

The Zabbaleen are Cairo's traditional rubbish collectors. The monastery's history says most came from poor Christian families of Upper Egypt, who moved to Cairo around 1900. Their district below the Mokattam cliffs is often called Garbage City.

The monastery's website says a governor's decree at the end of 1969 moved Cairo's rubbish collectors onto the Mokattam hill. They built huts of tin and kept donkeys, pigs, goats and cattle. Research carried out in July 1987, which the church credits to the International Bank, counted about 15,000 people there, and the church says that number has since doubled.

The monastery's website describes the system. Collectors gathered rubbish from homes across most of Cairo and sorted it back at their huts. Food scraps went to the animals. Paper, glass, plastic and cloth were sold on to dealers.

Driving through is part of the visit, and you should expect it to be confronting. Ground floors are stacked with sacks of sorted waste, trucks squeeze through narrow streets, and the smell is strong. This is a neighbourhood at work. Treat it as you would any residential street at home.

How a tin hut became a cave cathedral

The monastery's account starts in 1974. A Coptic minister was asked by a rubbish collector to visit the settlement. He prayed in a cave under a huge rock at the top of the hill, which is now inside the monastery.

The first church was a tin hut with a reed roof. The first general meeting, on 13 April 1974, drew nine people. Within months the hut was too small, so it was rebuilt in brick. The present church in the village later replaced it. Pope Shenouda III visited on 18 June 1977.

The caves came next. Workers found new caverns as they quarried and cleared the hillside. One was found in 1986, another in 1992. The great cave that now holds St Simon's Hall was found in 1974, filled to its 17-metre ceiling with rock. Clearing it began in 1991 and removed about 140,000 tons of stone, according to the church.

The main cathedral grew in two stages. It began as a low limestone cave, where people sat on straw mats in front of the altar. On 27 November 1994, the feast of St Simon, it opened in its present curved form.

What you see at the St Simon the Tanner Monastery

The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary and St Simon is the main sight. The church is built as a quarter circle, with the seats curving around the altar. Look for St Simon's relics near the altar. On the rock ceiling to the right is a figure of the Virgin and Child, which the church regards as miraculous.

St Simon's Hall sits in the great cave, with room for 2,000 people at meetings. Its rock walls carry carved scenes from the Bible, the best known a large figure of Christ with open arms. Below it is St Mark's Church, opened in March 1993. Three mosaic panels on the dome at the hall entrance show the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Ascension.

Two smaller cave churches are quieter. St Paula's Church held its first Mass in 1991 and survived a fire in January 1992. The church of Pope Abraham is the smallest, with its first Mass in 1993.

The view takes in the district below, which puts the church in context better than any sign.

Getting to the Cave Church

Most visitors come by taxi, ride-hailing app or private driver. Ask for Deir Samaan, the Monastery of St Simon, in the Zabbaleen area of Mokattam. The last stretch climbs through the district, slowly, behind collection trucks.

A driver who knows the route makes the trip much easier, because the streets are narrow and steep. Ask your driver to wait for you, because finding a car back down can take time.

It pairs well with the Citadel, which stands on a spur of the same Mokattam hills.

Visiting: hours, dress and photographs

We could not find a current official source for opening hours or any entry charge, so we do not give either. The monastery's old website asked visitors wanting a guided tour to contact its office in advance. Check the arrangement locally before you go.

This is a working church. Services and meetings take priority, so ask locally which times are busy. Visit outside service times if you want to walk around. Go during one if you want to see the place in use, and sit at the back.

Cover shoulders and knees, as in any Egyptian church. Ask before you photograph people, both inside the church and in the streets below. Residents are used to visitors, and most are friendly, but this is their home and their work.

For current safety advice on Cairo, read the US State Department and UK FCDO travel pages before you go. On the practical side, visit in daylight, keep your driver with you, and carry small notes for donations.

Is the Cave Church worth seeing?

Yes, if you have three or more days in Cairo and an interest in how Egypt lives today. Nothing else in Cairo looks like it. It also tells you more about Coptic Christians now than the old churches can.

It is a poor fit for a first trip with two days in Cairo. Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Egyptian Museum come first. It is also a weak choice if you came only for pharaonic sites, since everything here is modern.

Be ready for the district. Some visitors find the drive through Garbage City the most memorable part of their trip. Others find it uncomfortable. Both reactions are fair, and it helps to know in advance.

Allow half a day including the drive. Traffic in Cairo decides more of that than the visit itself does.

The Cave Church or Coptic Cairo?

They answer different questions. Coptic Cairo is old: the Hanging Church and Ben Ezra Synagogue stand inside a Roman fortress. The metro stops at its gate. The Cave Church is modern, larger and more dramatic, and it needs a car.

With one spare half day, Coptic Cairo is easier and more varied. With a full spare day and an interest in Coptic life, do both, on separate outings. Our Coptic Cairo guide covers the old quarter in detail.

Adding the Cave Church to a Memphis Tours trip

None of the itineraries we sell with our partner, Memphis Tours, includes the Cave Church today. We checked all 16. If you want it, the cleanest route is a tailor-made trip, where the day plan is built around what you ask for.

The Cairo Short Break, 5 days, from US$935 per person, land only, is the closest fixed trip. Day 3 covers the Egyptian Museum, the Citadel and Coptic Cairo. The Citadel already puts you on the right side of the city. Ask us before booking whether a stop could be added. We will confirm with Memphis Tours before promising anything.

The Cairo and Luxor Short Break, 5 days, from US$1,480 per person, land only, has one full Cairo sightseeing day. That is too little to add Mokattam without dropping something better suited to a short trip.