The Monastery of St. Simeon is the largest religious building in the Middle East, which can accommodate up to 20 thousand parishioners, but it is famous not only for its scale, but also for its unique location. Instead of the usual church vaults, there are cave walls deep in Mukattam Mountain (Cairo, Egypt).
The Monastery of Saint Simeon is the largest religious building in the Middle East.
The monastery was built in honor of Simeon the Tanner, a saint who, according to legend, saved thousands of fellow believers. The monastery was built by the Zabbalins, Egyptian residents who collect and dispose of garbage. They live in a Christian quarter on the outskirts of Cairo, which bears the "telling" name of the City of the Scavengers. The Zabbalins are descendants of peasants who moved from Upper Egypt to Cairo in the 1940s. Initially, the settlers were engaged in agriculture, raising pigs, goats and chickens, but this did not bring them much income. Then they began to collect garbage from the townspeople, taking away those things that had at least some value, as well as "edible" waste that served as animal feed in lean years. Residents of the "garbage" village soon felt that such an unenviable "business" could bring good profits.
Zabbalin cave church in Cairo.
The Zabbalins did not build houses for a long time, hiding from the municipal authorities. However, over time, they settled at the foot of Mount Mukattam on the outskirts of Cairo. In the 1980s, the population there was about 8 thousand people, but now it has grown to 30 thousand.
The cave church was built in honor of St. Simeon.
Despite the fact that Egypt is a Muslim country, the Zabbalins are Copts, that is, Egyptian Christians. Many members of this social group could have left Mukattam, but they are held back by religious feeling. The monastery of St. Simeon the Shoemaker was built in 1975. After the Zabbalins found their own church, they felt more confident, began to build houses of brick and stone, because before that (remembering the eviction from Giza in 1970) they lived in huts.
Garbage collection and disposal is the historical occupation of the Zabbalins.
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