The Hanging Church of Cairo

Copyright © Egypt, Cradle of Civilization

Built during the 3rd and 4th century the Hanging Church translated in Arabic to El-Mu'allaqa or "the Suspended" has also been known as Sitt Mariam and St Mary, and during the 14th and 15th centuries travelers called it the "Staircase Church" because of the twenty-nine steps that led to the entrance.


One of Cairo's most beautiful churches, its impressive location is due to the fact that it was built on top of the southern tower gate of the old Babylon fortress with its nave suspended over the road beneath. The land surface has risen by some 6 metres since the Roman period so that the Roman tower is mostly buried below ground; this has reduced the visual impact of the church's elevated position. The entrance to the Hanging Church is via a beautifully decorated gate on Shar'a Mari Girgis Street in Coptic Cairo (Old Cairo). Coptic Cairo is the oldest part of modern-day Cairo, a tightly walled enclave, with narrow alley-ways that lead to Churches dating back to the origins of Christianity in Egypt.


The Hanging Church is a World Heritage Site, and is still used to this day for Coptic Mass on Friday and Sunday. In Egypt this church has played an important role in the Coptic Church History, as it had been the seat of the patriarchs after it was transferred from Alexandria to Al- Fustat (Old Cairo). The 66th patriarch Pope Ana Christodolos (1039- 1079) chanted the liturgy in the church. The Church holds several important festivals and celebrations like the enthronement of the patriarchs.

Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the church contains an eleventh-century pulpit, a thirteenth-century ebony and ivory screen and also has been a place where antiquities have been preserved especially in the Coptic Museum, with some 110 medieval icons and murals, the oldest among them belonging to the 8th century. But the oldest artifact unearthed is a lintel showing Christ's entry into Jerusalem that dates from the 5th or 6th century. The church was badly damaged in the 1992 earthquake, which affected many of Cairo's medieval buildings, but has since been renovated.

The Hanging Church in Egypt was possibly the first built in Basilican style with three aisles, a narthex and tripartite sanctuary. Later another chapel known as the "little church" was constructed over the eastern tower of the Babylon Fortress' south gateway and now is the oldest part of the remaining church. In the 19th century a fourth aisle was added. The church is 23.5 meters long, 18.5 meters wide and 9.5 meters high.

Although the original church was founded during the third and fourth century; the current building may date from as early as the seventh century, but it was rebuilt in 977AD and heavily restored in the nineteenth century. However, the earliest mention of the church was a statement in the biography of the patriarch Joseph I (831-849 AD), when the governor of Egypt visited the establishment.


The entrance to the church leads into an open courtyard, flanked by mosaics, from which the 29 steps take you up to the church. At the top of the stairs are three wooden doors decorated with geometric patterns, framed with decorative carvings in the stone wall. The inside is impressive and is truly a work of art, lending the atmosphere an air saturated with medieval history, even the ancient timber wood of the magnificent ceiling is reminiscent of Noah's Ark.

About the Author:
Gawhara Hanem

How Did King Tut Really Go?!

Copyright © Egypt, Cradle of Civilization

Tutankhamun, also King Tut, was only 19 years old when he passed away 3,300 years ago. He came to the throne at the age of 9, too young to have made his own decisions. They were made for him by two figures. Aye (also Ay), his vizier [or minister] was said to be the power behind the throne during Tutankhamun's reign. His royal name was Kheperkheperure which means "Everlasting are the Manifestations of Ra". The other personage was Horemheb (a.k.a. Horemhab or Haremhab), the commander-in-chief of his army.

Detail of a statue of Horemheb, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Photo credit: wikipedia.org

We think King Tut was Akhenaton's son not from the well-famed (Neferneferuaten) Nefertiti but from Kiya a minor wife [actions and roles of hers are poorly documented in the historical record]. He may have had a brother Smenkhkare (also called Smenkhare, Smenkare and Smenkhkara), or as some think he could have been his father after all. Tut had six half-sisters from Akhenaton and Nefertiti (if Akhenaton was his father really!). He was married to his probably half-sister Ankhesenamun [denotes "Her Life Is of Amun"] and had twin girls who were stillborn and buried with him in the tomb. But even Ankhesenamun's fate is unknown, as she was made to marry Aye after her husband's death then just disappeared out of existence.

King Tut's Death Mask

Tutankhamun was the King that brought back the old religion after the revolution of Akhenaton, who banned the worship of Amun in favour of the one god Aten or Aton (religion: Atenism), which was represented by "the disk of the Sun". This gave him instantaneous popularity with both priests and people, so he was a loved king! Contrary to what was concluded that he was buried in haste, clues have shown that the mummification process and burial took their due course.

For some reason when Horemheb came to power he deleted all evidence of existence of his predecessors Akhenaten, Neferneferuaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun, and Aye who were erased from the official lists of Pharaohs which instead reported that Amenhotep III [means "Amun is Satisfied"] was immediately succeeded by Horemheb. This may have been a way for Horemheb to delete all trace of Atenism and of any pharaoh associated with it from historical record. Akhenaten's name never appeared on any of the king lists compiled by later Pharaohs and it was not until the late 19th century that his identity was re-discovered and the surviving traces of his reign were unearthed by archaeologists.

October 1925
Carter and a worker examine the solid gold innermost sarcophagus

Before Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's intact tomb in 1922, the world had never heard of King Tutankhamun and the finding led to a refreshed public interest in ancient Egypt. Since then his burial mask has become synonymous with all of Egyptian history. But at the time of discovery, Carter and his teamwork basically dismantled the corpse while looking for amulets and other jewellery. The mummy's head was removed and nearly every major joint severed. Furthermore, many of its parts present at the original examination are now missing. But if Carter had not cut the mummy free from the hardened resin that cemented it fast in the wooden coffin, thieves would certainly ripped it apart to remove the gold.

Zahi Hawass examining King Tut mummy

Archaeology has significantly changed over the years. It was more important to discover and collect treasures, not paying enough or any attention to details of life and intriguing mysteries of death, even if they left the antiquities badly damaged or in a critical state.

Since 1926, the mummy has been X-rayed three times. First X-ray picure was taken in 1968 by a group from the University of Liverpool led by Dr. R. G. Harrison. Then in 1978, another group from the University of Michigan, and finally in 2005 a team of Egyptian scientists led by Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass, who conducted a CT scan on the mummy, acquiring 1,700 three dimensional images during a 15-minute scan.

December 1922
A ceremonial bed in the shape of the Celestial Cow, surrounded by provisions and other objects in the antechamber of the tomb.
IMAGE: Harry Burton (C) The Griffith Institute, Oxford. Colorized By Dynamichrome for the exhibition “the discovery of King Tut” in New York.

The early X-rays raised alarms that the deceased was murdered. But did the young pharaoh die from a blow to the head? Well! apparently not! After the detailed CT scans taken recently King Tut died of natural causes. Although some Egyptologists and amateur sleuths have long speculated that a stealthy foe murdered Tut by attacking him from behind. The evidence is all circumstantial, with very little reason to believe that murder was the primary scenario.

So lets look at evidence just a tad-bit closer. Among claims that King Tut may have died of the Black Death or Bubonic Plague* (which had appeared at the time), of lung disease, poison or even a brain tumour, the major allegation of a fatal blow to the back of the head have all proved futile.

The damage to the skull that raised cahoots has proven to be due to damage by the embalmers during the mummification process or carelessness of the Carter team. What was actually determined, though speculation, but the most agreed on, is the fact that there was a fracture found on the left leg of the mummy, which did not show evidence of healing, meaning that it was received just before death.


And again from what we learnt of his life painted on the walls of his burial chamber, like all Pharaohs, King Tutankhamun studied reading, writing, mathematics, geology, astronomy, a foreign language and for fun and relaxation he learnt, archery, wrestling and how to drive a chariot. But as it seems he had a deep infatuation with hunting, which may have been the root cause of his demise. Whatever caused the fractured thigh bone is likely to have also caused an open wound that was serious enough to cause an infection, fever and death. Although the break itself would not have been life-threatening, but gangrene caused by a badly broken leg was the most likely culprit. So was it a hunting accident that brought the end to a Dynasty of Kings? We may never know.


Many questions have yet to be answered about the life and death of the Boy-King, and may even remain a mystery buried under the sands of time like many still unsolved mysteries of the Valley of the Kings.

* Bubonic plague, caused by Yersinia pestis [a Gram-negative, nonmotile, rod-shaped coccobacillus, with no spores], is transmitted by the bite of the flea Xenopsylla cheopsis.

This flea lives off the blood of many species besides man but its most notorious relationship is with the black rat (Rattus rattus). Recent archaeological evidence has caused a rethinking of plague in the ancient Near East. Fossilized remains of the plague flea have been found in large numbers in Amarna, Egypt; and, since Amarna was occupied for only a few years, we can date this contact between human beings and plague fleas accurately to about 1350 BC - which is before the events described in the Book of Samuel. Moreover, archaeological studies in the Nile Valley indicate that R. rattus was introduced at this time, probably via ships from India. Evidence of bubonic plague has not been seen in Egyptian mummies but all the vectors were in place. These vectors could have spread a few miles north to Philistia [Philistia refers to the land of the Five Lords of the Philistines, described in Joshua and Samuel, comprising Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza, in the south-western Levant].

About the Author:
Gawhara Hanem

The Mysterious Boy-King

Copyright © Egypt, Cradle of Civilization

Was it a natural death or was he murdered? After almost 3,000 years and with very little evidence and so many conspiracy theories it's hard to determine exactly how the boy-king died! 28 years ago after X-rays were taken of his mummy by the anatomy department of the University of Liverpool everyone was convinced that Tutankhamun died of unnatural causes, presumably a blow to the back of the head.



The main suspect was Aye, his vizier in conspiracy with Horemheb, the commander-in-chief of the army. Seeming to gain from the king's death, Aye succeeded, ruling Egypt for 4 years before he died and was then succeeded by Horemheb. Both were powerful men who were present during the reign of King Tut. But they both would have had no reason to murder him since he was young and did not hold much authority and they were probably making the decisions any way. And as it happened, Tutankhamun had no enemies; he was loved by the priests and the population because he was the one to re-establish the religion of Amun-Re after the death of his heretic father Akhenaten, who outlawed it, replacing it with the monotheistic worship of Aten.



Tutankhamun belonged to the Eighteenth dynasty and ruled Egypt at a time of turbulence. Originally Tutankhaten, meaning the "Living Image of Aten", was changed when he came to power to Tutankhamun, meaning the "Living Image of Amun". Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten also known as Amenhotep ΙV, and his minor wife Queen Kiya. He came to reign at the age of 9 and at the age of 13 married Ankhesenamun, who was probably his half-sister, as it is recorded that Ankhesenamun as one of the six daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. At the age of 19 the king died suddenly and was buried in a crammed tomb in the "Valley of the Kings", now known as Al-Amarna. The Valley of the Kings was declared a World Heritage Site in 1927, it lies on the west bank just across the Nile from Thebes (modern Luxor), and is the valley where, for 500 years, tombs for kings of the New Kingdom were constructed.



KV62 (the tomb of Tutankhamun) was first discovered, by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, who came upon it by chance. The tomb remains the only royal Egyptian tomb discovered in modern times virtually intact. The rubble that concealed the tomb and its occupant protected it for over 30 centuries, preserving its treasures from grave robbers of antiquity who looted so many other tombs. His tomb was robbed at least twice in antiquity, but from the items taken (including perishable oils and perfumes) and the evidence of restoration of the tomb after the intrusions, it is clear that these robberies took place within several months at most of the initial burial.



The tomb of Tutankhamun consists of 3 chambers within which is crammed thousands of masterpieces of jewelry, furniture, and art objects. Over 5000 artifacts, the treasures included four nested boxes, or shrines, of gilded wood, then three mummy-shaped coffins (two gilded and one of solid gold) all inside a red quartzite sarcophagus. But the most significant finding was the mummy of King Tut himself, with a stunning mask of gold covering his head and shoulders. More so this was a first in modern history, the discovery of the mummy of an Egyptian king, lying intact in his original burial furniture.



To remove the jewelry and amulets from the body, Carter and his team had to cut up the mummy into various pieces: the arms and legs were detached, the torso cut in half and the head was severed. Hot knives were used to remove it from the golden mask to which it was cemented by hardened embalming resin. This had taken its toll on the mummy's condition and is one of the reasons why it is difficult to conclude how Tutankhamun died exactly.


King Tutankhamun still rests in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, in a temperature-controlled glass case. But his world tour "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" back from London this August, is currently touring the U.S.A, starting this 15th of November it will be at the Atlanta Civic Center through to May of 2009. The exhibition is organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. The tour's proceeds will help raise money to preserve Egypt’s treasures, including the construction of the new Cairo museum (the GEM) which is expected to house 100,000 exhibits making it larger than the British Museum.

In a Whirl of Color!

Copyright © Egypt, Cradle of Civilization

The Tanoura Dance Troupe performed this week as they do every week, at the picturesque Al-Ghouri Mousoleum near Khan el Kalili bazaar. They perform twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and the admission is free! So it's hard to be disappointed since the experience is bewitchingly amazing.



The practice of Tanoura or Sufi whirling is a type of meditation that originated among Sufis over 700 years ago. The word "Tanoura" may refer to the dance, dancer, or the large skirt used in the performance.

Sufism is the spiritual tradition known to many Westerners through the mystical poetry of Rumi and Hafiz. Sufism is a mystical tradition dating back two millennia. It is generally understood to be the mystical dimension of Islam, and the practitioner of this tradition is known as Sufi or "Dervish." The word is Persian in origin and literally means "the sill of the door", but it is used by the Arabic and Turkish language to describe the Sufi, who is the one who is at the door to enlightenment.


Sufi Masters have developed a variety of practices to induce mystical states of consciousness. Jalaluddin Rumi, a thirteenth-century Persian Sufi and founder of the Mevlana Order, developed the ritual dance which consisted mostly of turning in place or spinning around a central point or pillar.


Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!"
The Egyptian Sufi dancing is different to the Mevlana Dervishes in Turkey. It is more colourful and with more people involved in the performance. The concept is built around the idea that the universe stems from the same point of rotation. Starting and ending at the same point, represented by the senior dancer, "Lafife" and symbolizes the Sun, while the junior dancers "Hanatia" are the constellation revolving around him. The whirling motion itself reflects the importance of circles in Sufi philosophy and cosmology, within which revolution is the fundamental state of all beings. The aim during this ritual is to desert "the nafs" or ego (or personal desires) and listening to their master and Sufi music, thinking about God and whirling on a spiritual journey to reach the "Kemal" (the perfect).


"For a dervish, there must be a purpose, a cause for existence, and inside the cause, a True Human Being." Jelaluddin Rumi
The musical instruments used include rebaba (folk fiddle), ney (flute), mizmar (shawm), frame drums, sagat (cymbals), and tabla (doumbek drum). In the Sufi tradition the ney holds great significance as air has to be breathed in and out rather than blown into it, and that the wind passing through the flute is not just the breath of the player but the breath of God. So once the breath enters the journeyer (the dancer), he seeks union with God through the whirling movements. There is also the chanting of "thikr", which is the repletion of "la illaha illa'llah" (there is no god but God). However, some Dervish may only repeat "Allah" because they believe man can die at any moment, and they want only the name of God on their lips and in their hearts.


The changes in music, body language, and facial expressions are intended to communicate. The tannoura contained a cohesive message, communicated sequentially over the course of the show. The dancers whirl continuously sometimes for up to 45 minutes straight, varying their pace to match the music, then stop and be completely fine. As they turn, they manipulate long skirts in a colorful display and executing skilled moves, such as throwing the skirts in the air, spinning the skirts at different levels and angles, even spinning the skirt over head and while lying down. When the dancer tilts at an angle where the right hand is raised up and the left almost touches the ground, it signifies a union of the heaven and earth.


It is a rare occurrence of religious ceremony transcending into performing art. But it is obviously more entertainment than religious ceremony. It is also claimed that the trance-like state that the Dervish goes into extends to the observing audience, so don't feel surprised if you find yourself transfixed watching these well trained performers on their spiritual journey!

Happy Birthday Ramses!!

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Abu Simbel was unheard of in the Egyptological world until J. L. Burckhardt in 1813 stumbled on the upper part of a temple façade almost covered by sand. The entrance leading into the temple was discovered four years later by Giovanni Battista Belzoni and since then it has attracted many who have been awe-struck by the colossal façade of the temple.



Although the temple attracts tourists all year round its worth everything to visit this 3000 year old inspiring rock mountain on the 22nd of February and the 22nd of October, when the Sun illuminates the sanctuary statues.

The temple was actually built further down the Nile, in the same relative position, but due to the rising waters of Lake Nasser that grew behind the Aswan Dam, the temple had to be moved on the desert plateau 200 feet above and 600 feet west of their original location. In a massive archeological rescue plan by the UNESCO in the 1960s the complex of temples was moved to its site today from the original locations that are presently underwater.

Abu Simbel lies 280 km south of Aswan and only 40 km north of the Sudanese border. Archaeologists have concluded that the immense sizes of the statues in the Great Temple were intended to scare potential enemies approaching Egypt's southern region, as they traveled down the Nile from out of Africa.

The massive façade of the main temple is dominated by four seated colossal statues of Ramses II himself. Each statue 67 feet high is seated on a throne and wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and all are sculpted directly from the rock face. The thrones are decorated on their sides with Nile gods symbolically uniting Egypt. Between the legs and on each of their sides stand smaller statues of members of the royal family. The smaller statues of relatives were of his wife Queen Nefertari, his mother Tuya the great wife of Seti Ι, and of many of his children.

There are two main temples, that of Ramses II dedicated to sun gods Amun Ra and Ra-Harakhte and the smaller was built in honor of Nefertari, his wife and dedicated to the goddess Hathor. The temples are as impressive in the day as they are by night, since each night there are three Sound and Light Shows in seven different languages.

The Abu Simbel Sun Festival is one of the world's most unique events to date. This week the Solstice occurrence can be witnessed again by crowds that pack into the temple before sunrise. The two dates, February and October the 22nd commemorate King Ramses' ΙΙ ascension to the throne and his birthday respectively.

The Sun Festival starts at dawn as the visitors watch the shafts of light slowly creep into the temple lighting up this sanctuary. Curiously enough the sun illuminates the status of Amun-Ra, Ra-Harakhte and Ramses the god; whilst the statue of Ptah, the god of darkness remains in the shadows.

So on the 22nd of this month unlike any of us, Ramses will not be having candles lite up on his birthday, but the first rays of the Sun will light up his face before it lights up his architectural phenomena and the rest of Egypt!


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