Tour Overview
This private Coptic Cairo day tour visits the old Christian heart of the city and one of its oldest Jewish sites. You see the Hanging Church above the Roman gate of Babylon, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the Church of Abu Serga, where tradition says the Holy Family rested, and the Virgin Mary Church in Haret Zuweila, once the seat of the Coptic patriarch. A professional guide and a modern air-conditioned car collect you from your hotel, and lunch is included.
Tour Highlights
- Climb the steps of the Hanging Church, built over the southern gate of the Roman fortress of Babylon, with a wooden roof shaped like Noah's Ark.
- Visit the Ben Ezra Synagogue, set in the shell of an earlier church, where thousands of medieval documents of Cairo's Jewish community were found.
- Go down to the crypt of Abu Serga, built over the place where tradition says the Holy Family sheltered during their flight into Egypt.
- Leave the Coptic quarter for Haret Zuweila, where the Church of the Virgin Mary served as the seat of the Coptic pope from 1400 to 1520.
- Learn how Egypt's Christian and Jewish communities lived side by side in Old Cairo for centuries, with a guide who knows the history.
Tour Route
What is Coptic Cairo?
Coptic Cairo is the oldest part of the city, around the remains of the Roman fortress of Babylon, south of today's center. It is home to some of Egypt's oldest churches, a historic synagogue and narrow lanes where the Christian community has lived since the early centuries of Christianity.
Copts are Egypt's native Christians, and their church traces its founding to Saint Mark in Alexandria. The Coptic quarter grew long before Fustat and Cairo, and many of its churches were rebuilt over older foundations. Your guide helps you read the icons, screens and inscriptions.
What is the Holy Family route in Egypt?
According to Coptic tradition, Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus traveled through Egypt to escape King Herod, stopping at places that are now churches and monasteries, from Sinai and the Delta to Middle Egypt. Abu Serga in Old Cairo is one of the most important stops.
Are the churches in Coptic Cairo still in use?
Yes. These are working churches, not museums, and services are held in them regularly. Visitors are welcome, but dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, keep your voice low, and avoid walking around or taking photos while a service is under way.
Sunday is the main day of worship for Copts, so the churches can be busier then, and parts of them may be closed to visitors during the liturgy. If you would like to attend a service, tell us when you book and we will check whether it can fit your plan.
How is this tour different from the other Cairo city tours?
This is our only Cairo tour built around the churches and the synagogue of Old Cairo. The other city tours focus on museums, on the mosques of Islamic Cairo or on the pyramids, and none of them visits the Coptic quarter.
To see the mosques of the medieval city, from Ibn Tulun to Sultan Hassan, book the Islamic Cairo day tour. For the royal mummies and two museums, choose the Egyptian Museum, Citadel and NMEC tour. Further afield, the Wadi El Natrun monasteries day trip takes you to the desert monasteries where Coptic monastic life is still lived today.
Tour Itinerary
Morning in the Coptic quarter, lunch, then a church across the city.
In the morning, your guide meets you at your hotel and a modern air-conditioned car drives you south to Old Cairo, the area that grew around the Roman fortress of Babylon. On the way, your guide introduces the story of the Coptic Church.
The Hanging Church takes its name from its position, built over the southern gatehouse of the Roman fortress, so its nave seems to hang above the passage below. Inside, look up at the wooden roof shaped like Noah's Ark. From the seventh to the thirteenth century, it was the residence of the Coptic patriarch.
The Ben Ezra Synagogue stands on a site used for Jewish worship since at least the ninth century, in the shell of an earlier church. Tradition links the site to the prophet Jeremiah. It is best known for its geniza, a storeroom of old papers that revealed daily life of the Jewish community of medieval Cairo.
Your guide then takes you to a local restaurant for lunch, which is included in the price. It is a comfortable break between the two parts of the day, and a chance to ask about the Coptic calendar and the church's role in Egyptian life today.
Abu Serga, the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, is one of the oldest churches in Cairo. It stands over a crypt that tradition identifies as a resting place of Mary, Joseph and the young Jesus during their time in Egypt, and many patriarchs of the Coptic Church were chosen here.
The last visit is the Church of the Virgin Mary in Haret Zuweila, one of the oldest churches in that part of Cairo, with roots going back to around the tenth century. From 1400 to 1520 it served as the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria.
After the final church, your driver takes you back to your hotel in Cairo or Giza in the private air-conditioned car. Your guide, transport, lunch, services, charges and taxes are all covered in the price, so there is nothing to settle at the end of the day.
What's Included
What the tour price covers, and what to plan for separately.
Paid
★
Your
Own
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers about this tour. For anything else, message us on WhatsApp — we reply fast.
Your guide and driver collect you from your hotel in Cairo or Giza in the morning and drop you back after the last church. Hotels in Downtown Cairo and Giza are covered, and other areas of Greater Cairo can be served for an extra charge. Send us your hotel name when you book.
The price includes a professional tour guide, a modern air-conditioned car for all transfers, hotel pickup and drop-off, lunch at a local restaurant, and all services, charges and taxes. Tips, optional tours, personal expenses and anything not listed in the program are extra.
Yes, the guide and car are for your group only. Their cost is the same whether you are two or eight people, so the per-person price falls as your group grows, and it also changes between the summer season and the busier winter and holiday months. Prices start from {price} per person.
No, the Coptic Museum is not part of this program. The tour visits the Hanging Church, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Abu Serga and the Virgin Mary Church in Haret Zuweila. If you would like to add the museum, which sits right beside the Hanging Church, ask us when you book.
Yes. Avicon Travel is a Class "A" travel agency licensed by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism under License No. 1962 and registered since 2010. Our office and team are in Karnak, Luxor, so the guides, drivers and cars on this tour are our own local team, not a booking desk abroad.
