Hanging Church of St Mary

The Hanging Church of St Mary rises above the Roman towers of Babylon Fortress in Old Cairo, its nave built over a gate—hence its Arabic name al-Muʿallaqa (the Suspended ). Founded in the 3rd–4th cc. and reshaped through the medieval period, it became a defining shrine of Coptic Cairo and, in the 11th–14th cc., a seat of the Coptic Orthodox pope. Its icons and finely carved wooden screens preserve a distinct Christian visual language that endured through centuries of changing rule.