Day of Insanity

I did so much stuff today that I can't quite process it. We started off with Coptic Cairo in the morning, as promised, and it was amazing. Mohammad, who is on our dig but has done tons of archaeological work on various Christian sites, acted as our personal tour guide. We started with the Roman fortress of Babylon, which was eventually converted into holy space by Coptic Christians. We began our tour with an adventure through the inside of one of the fortress's towers -- something that normal tourists don't get to do, but all Mohammad had to do was whisper a sentence or two to one of his friends and we were in. We ended up picking our way down dark staircases and trying not to slip on bat guano.


See that? BATS. I'm not sure if he was serious or not, but at one point Mohammed told us we had better run if we wanted to avoid getting pooped on. We got to peek down all kinds of ancient cisterns and even saw where the Greek patriarchs are traditionally buried! And all the while, we got personal commentary from Mohammed, who has worked on this site for ten years. Here I am in an underground room with an ancient painting of my pal Jesus:


Afterward we went to the Church of Saint George proper, which is absolutely gorgeous (and decorated with Saint George).


There is both a main church and a shrine underneath that contains various holy relics. A cross and crown of thorns sat in one of the corners of the shrine, and I noticed a man carrying his child frantically stroking the crown and then rubbing the baby's head. Most of the visitors were there for serious pilgrimage purposes, which was fascinating. Before we ever made it inside the church, we bumped into a Greek Orthodox priest who happens to be good friends with Mohammad. After they chatted for a moment or two, we found ourselves being led into the Greek patriarch's Cairene reception room, where we were served 7up and chocolate. Mohammad is pretty charming. Watch him at work (he's on the right):


Soon the father appeared again holding a bunch of rosaries in his hand. He gave one to each of us, saying that we should hang it up at home for protection. His advice to all of us was to remember that people in Egypt have harder lives than we do, but they are happy, so we should be too. Seemed like sound advice to me!

After the Church of Saint George, we went to the Convent of Saint George, which houses another ancient site that Mohammad has worked on. In this small underground shrine, there is a bunch of ancient brick that he and a team of workers uncovered. Unfortunately, some Coptic leaders think that new plaster surfacing would be more aesthetically pleasing, so he is fighting to keep them from undoing his hard work.

In that same place there is a chain that was allegedly used to bind martyrs. We took off our shoes (as you do in Coptic sacred spaces) and padded through the room where the candles and icons were. We heard soft clinking sounds from the midst of a swarm of faithful Copts wrapping the chain around their necks. When we came out, we met one of the convent's nuns, who took us to yet another reception where I got to try hibiscus juice, which is a very popular drink in Egypt. It's tasty, but intensely sweet and not-quite-fruity tasting. While we drank, she told us about the nuns' farm and amazing craftwork, such as construction of stained glass windows. After taking refreshments, the nun led us to see the convent's GORGEOUS icon collection. The walls of the room were decorated with intricately detailed wood carvings done by the nuns themselves. Even the air conditioning vent was covered with beautiful carvings. Most impressive was the lectern and doors behind it.


And after THAT, we saw the Churches of St. Sergius and St. Barbara, which are similarly constructed and filled with incredible woodwork (that we were not allowed to photograph). The church of St. Sergius is on the route allegedly taken by the holy family when they fled to Egypt, and its crypt is said to have been blessed by them. At first we thought we'd only get a peek past the gate that blocked the stairs, but before we knew it Mohammad had someone unlock it for us and we got to go down, past the folded up prayer requests scribbled on notebook paper and tossed inside, down to the crypt itself.


The Church of St. Barbara was fascinating for its juxtaposition of awesome icons and woodwork and... Jesus kitsch! Check it:


Nothing says "sacred" to me like neon green lights. I love it.

We also got to see Ben Ezra synagogue, which is absolutely gorgeous. It also happens to be where the Cairo Genizah, an ENORMOUS collection of documents dating from the ninth to nineteenth century, was found. According to Jewish law, it was forbidden to destroy texts containing God's name and it was especially forbidden to destroy scripture, even if it was no longer usable. So people would dispose of their documents by storing them together in a genizah, this time in Ben Ezra synagogue. We also got to sneak behind the synagogue to see the well where, according to legend, the baby Moses was found:


And then we had lunch at the cafe at Saint George.