Coptic Museum in Cairo

The Coptic Museum
The Coptic Museum is a beautiful museum in the heart of "Old Cairo", the traditionally Coptic Christian quarter. It stands on the site of ancient Babylon, the Roman fortress city that was the earliest part of Cairo. The museum is near Mar Girgis (St George) metro station.
The museum was founded in 1910 by Marcus Simaika Pasha to provide a home for the many objects scattered around Egypt in various monasteries, and to provide a means of tracing the Christian history of Egypt. As well as the museum buildings there are gardens and courtyards, and the grounds are surrounded by old Coptic churches. There are six churches, some of them dating back as early as the 5th century AD, including the "Hanging Church" of the Virgin Mary and the church of St Sergius (see Old Cairo).
The Coptic Museum is a quiet and peaceful place, and its spacious building is lined with mosaics and decorated with old mashrabiya screens. It holds a rich collection of objects from the Christian era (AD 300-1000), linked to ancient Egyptian pieces right up to the Islamic conquest of the country. The artefacts on display cover a period of Egyptian history that is often overlooked, and they show how the artistic development of the Copts influenced, and was influenced by, the pharaonic, Greco-Roman and Islamic cultures. The museum was renovated in 1980 with two new annexes; together with the original passages, it houses a collection of 16,000 artefacts arranged in chronological order across twelve sections.
Coptic cross in the shape of an Ankh.
Coptic fresco depicting Christ.
Musical instrument used in Coptic ritual.
There are beautiful examples of textiles and woven icons with intricate religious designs. There are also fine examples of stone, ceramics and woodwork, including a carving called the "Petition of the Rats", in which three rats raise a white flag before a cat. The exhibits include a bronze eagle found in the Roman fortress of Babylon.