Coptic Cairo
Walled quarter of ancient churches and a synagogue hiding a medieval manuscript trove.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Coptic Cairo turns on a windowless attic room reachable only by ladder, where a Cambridge scholar named Solomon Schechter climbed in 1896 after two Scottish sisters brought home scraps of paper from it. You'll hear why the community had been filling that hidden chamber for nearly a thousand years rather than throwing anything away, and what convinced Schechter to sail for Egypt himself. A local tradition about the well in the courtyard beside the synagogue is worth listening for too.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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