Due to persecution of Christians all over the Roman empire in the first 4 centuries, Christians were prohibited to declare their faith, thus could not build any churches of course. As They were chased and arrested every where Christians lived in caves and abandoned temples. One of the recently discovered sites near Cairo of the early persecuted Christians is the Cave churches. Those churches  were either cut in the early centuries or in the recent time due to the increasing pilgrims and worshipers in this amazing site. The cave churches site witnessed more than 200 miracles in the present time ,beside the ancient ones therough out the centuries. The place is a virgin one, so that no books about the history of the place have been written yet. Going through the very poor area in the mountain ,No one could imagine to be rewarded with such beauty .

4 cave churches could be seen over the mountain;

"St. Marry"  -  "St. Simon" -  "St. Mark" -  "St. Paula churches"

Since St. Marry church is the largest amongst the cave churches , so called by the community   " the Cathedral". Iits auditorium accommodates 20,000 attendants.

Entrance of the St. Mary church in is worked with fine mozaique.

 An over view of the St.  Marry church. This church could take 20.000 seated members.

It is considered to be the largest church in Egypt &  the world.       1.5 million tones of rocks and debris  have been removed. The work has been going on nonstop for 13 years.  All done by the native community members. As a volunteer job non was paid a penny to work.

Guiding groups of reverents at the St. Mary Church

The mountain is fully covered with  records of biblical pictured stories in vivid colors.

The church of St. Pola was found when a loader fell into the pit. The recent excavations prove that the church was used in the 6th century.

In front of  the  sanctuary a little girl that fell a sleep and was forgotten behind after closing the church was escorted by the saint Pola till the morning "the little girl relates" 

One of the miracles witnessed in 1991 when the whole church burnt  in fire ,This picture of Christ was the only surviving object.