Cairo: Coptic Museum (10/25/2023)

Wednesday, October 25, 2023 (continued)

Our walking tour of Coptic Cairo continued to the Coptic Museum, also within the former Fortress of Babylon.

Coptic Museum (est 1908, 1910 building) has the largest
collection of Coptic Christian artifacts in the world

One of the two marble fountains collected from
old Coptic palaces

Frieze (6C) of acanthus branches (symbolizing enduring life)
flanking a cross from the Monastery of St Jeremiah in Saqqara

Bronze cross in the shape of an ankh

All the stained glass was a highlight of the museum;
supposedly in keeping with the Arab sense of privacy, the
glass bits are small to allow light in, yet no one can look in

Museum courtyard, with more of the wooden lattice-
work covered windows; they allow
one to see out, yet no one can see in

Painted panel (6C) from the lower border of a wall,
from the Monastery of Apollo in Bawit, Egypt (KSS)

More stained glass plus the light filtered through
other stained glass windows in the cupola

View from inside the wooden lattice-work window covering

This is the close-up view from inside
the wooden lattice-work window covering

Introduction to the Four Gospels(13C) in Arabic (KSS)

Title page (11C) of the Gospel of St Mark in Coptic

A liturgical tunic (19C) embroiderd with the
figure of Mary holding the infant Jesus,
surrounded by the twelve apostles;
also the crown (19C) of Negus/Emperor
John IV of Ethiopia

Coptic Museum stained glass

The leather pouch in which ancient Coptic
manuscripts were found in a clay jar discovered
by a camel driver digging fertilizer in 1945

Called the Nag Hammadi Library, the manuscripts included:
on the left is page 32 showing the end of the Apocryphon
of John and the beginning of the Gospel of Thomas,
on the right is page 111, a page of the untitled text commonly
referred to as On the Origin of the World

Nag Hamadi Library: Beginning of the Gospel of Matthew
are two pages (1340 CE) ornamented with gilt
geometric patterns and kufic script/style of Arabic script (KSS)

Painted wooden ceiling

Toys

Icon (17C, Greek style) showing "Christ on
a throne in the temple surrounded by
Jewish teachers expressing approval and
amazement at His words"

A wooden palanquin inlaid with mother-of-pearl
from the Ottoman period

Next: the "Hanging Church"/St Mary's Coptic
Orthodox Church, which was built "suspended"
over the water gate of the Fortress of Babylon

The Hanging Church courtyard mosaic of Mary

This mosaic shows Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus along
the bank of the Nile River, with the Great Pyramid
of Giza across the river in the upper left

Narthex of the Hanging Church

Hanging Church interior up to the iconostasis

The pulpit that is used only on Palm Sunday;
it is supposed to stand on 13 pillars
representing Christ and the twelve apostles,
one of which is darker for Judas; however,
I see 15 pillars and at least three dark pillars

A fellow traveler lights a candle
at the icon of Mary and Child
with St John the Baptist

This reliquary is reported to hold a part of the
Holy Cross and a part of the Holy Tomb stone

Heading back to the hotel by motor coach, and
passing Amr ibn al-As Mosque (641-642 CE, with
multiple reconstructions up to 1875)

Tomb and Cistern (1495-1496) of Yaqub Shah
sits on the edge of the City of the Dead

Part of the City of the Dead

Al Safa Mosque within the City of the Dead

More of those extremely tall palm trees

Next: Jordan: Mount Nebo.