Cave Church (Saint Simon Monastery)
The Monastery of Saint Simon, also known as the Cave Church, is located in the Mokattam Mountain in southeastern Cairo, Egypt, in an area that is known as ‘garbage city.
The Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner is the largest and it has an amphitheater with a seating capacity of 20,000.
The church is the largest church in the Middle East.
This church was named after Virgin Mary and ST. Simon the Tanner, in commemoration of the miracle of transferring the Moqattam Hill on the 27th of November 979, where the Lord used ST.Simon the Tanner to fulfill this miracle in the Era of Pope Abram the son of Zara the Syriaque the 62nd pope. During this time after praying and fasting for three days in the church of Virgin Mary in Old Egypt, Virgin Mary has made her revelation to pope Abram to announce upon who sew hands the transference of the hill would take place
This huge cave was discovered in the year 1974. It was full of hundreds of tons of stones even up to the ceiling of the cave (which is 17 meters high from the ground), and was later prepared to contain “St.Simon the Tannewr Hall” and “St.Mark’sChurch”
The cave had only one sloap entrance and it was extremely difficult to pass through it( that is is the present big glass window overseening the area).
In the year 1991, after continuous prayers for seven years seeking God’s guidance on how to enter the cave, work began to find a path in order to enter the cave and and start removing the huge quantities of debris and demolishing 140thousand tons of stones from the walls and ground of the cave.
Finally, it was prepared to contain two storeys. The upper storey is “ST. Samaan the Tanner Hall” prepared to accommodate 2000 people in spiritual meetings. The walls are decorated with many wonderful pictures engraved on the rocks representing scenarios from the Bible. The most unique sceneryis of Jesus Christ opening His arms for all those who ask for Him.
The lower storey is “St. Mark’s Church”, which was named after St. Mark the first preacher in Egyptian heritage. It was inaugurated in March 1993.
The church dome at the Hall entrance is decorated from the outside by three great artistic pieces made of small coloured mosaic, on top of the dome representing important scenes from the Bible (crucifixion, Resurrection, rising to heaven)
