Al Matariyah Things to Do

2 more images

Behind the small chapel with the Holy Family fresco is a one-room building housing a religious exhibition.

This exhibition is displaying pictures of the most important Christian sites in Egypt, maps and ancient objects found on those places.

3 more images

The so-called "Mary's Tree" is located in the center of the site.

From the entrance it is impossible to see it, but once you pass the Jesus well it draws your entire attention.

It is said that the Holy Family found shade under a sycamore tree in Al Matariyah.

After bathing Jesus and washing His clothes, Virgin Mary poured the washing water on the ground.

On that spot a sweet-smelling plant grew.

The essence of this old tree is still used today in the preparation of the scents and perfumes of which the holy Chrism is composed.

The statue presenting the Virgin Mary is placed in a small niche on the wall just near the entrance to the site.

This is in fact the first thing that attracts your attention when entering Al Matariyah.

1 more image

I particularly liked the upper part of the wall surrounding Al Matariyah site.

Made of wrought iron, this is a wonderful representation of the Holy Family.

What I have noticed in Egypt, especially when you visit the Christian sites, is that there are a lot of representations of the Holy Family: frescos, paintings, sculptures and even fences as we have found in Al Matariyah.

1 more image

The impression that I have now thinking back to my visit to Al Matariyah is that is a poor place. The houses looked even poorer than in other parts of Cairo.

But just entering Al Matariyah site you seem to enter into another world. Although a quite narrow place, everything there is well organized and there is a lot of vegetation.

Another remarkable aspect in this area is that everything within the region is named after the Virgin Mary.

There is the Mary's church, the Mary's mosque, the Mary's well and even the Mary's housing blocks.

Al Matariyah is about 10 km away from Cairo and can be easily reached by buses and subway.

As we were an organized group accompanied by an Egyptian tour guide it was pretty easy to do the visit although at a certain moment on our way to Al Matariyah a police patrol joined us.

We've been told that, as we were going to visit a Christian site located Muslim area, this is a mandatory protection measure.

1 more image

These are one of my favorite pictures from Al Matariyah.

I love the image of this minaret seen from Mary's tree, above the small buildings around the place.