The Cave Church

This guide to the Cave Church in Cairo starts in Manshiyat Nasser, the Zabbaleen quarter where families who fled poor harvests in Upper Egypt now sort the city's trash by hand, and where a priest named Father Samaan Ibrahim began carving a place to pray into the mountainside in 1975. Behind it lies an older legend: a caliph who demanded proof of faith from Pope Abraham, and a humble shoe-mender named Simon whose prayer was said to answer the challenge. Look for the reliefs a Polish sculptor cut into the amphitheater's rock walls, including scenes of Joseph and his brothers.