Hanging Church
— — a nave suspended on two Roman towers.
Not only on a wall.
“The Coptic church the locals call Al-Muallaqa, the Suspended. Its nave was laid across the two southern bastions of the Roman fortress of Babylon, so the floor sits about thirteen metres above the original ground. A long stair climbs from the courtyard. Inside, an ivory-and-ebony screen separates the haikal from the nave, and the pulpit rests on thirteen marble columns for Christ and the apostles.
Hanging Church, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Hanging Church, called Al-Muallaqa in Arabic and the Church of the Virgin Mary in Coptic, stands in the Mar Girgis district of Old Cairo. It was built across the two southern towers of the late-Roman Babylon Fortress, completed under the emperor Trajan around 98 AD. The earliest church on the site is recorded in the third or fourth century; the present basilica is largely seventh- to ninth-century with extensive Fatimid and later restoration. It has served as the seat of the Coptic Patriarch on several occasions through its history.
The nave is supported on the Roman bastions and reached by a flight of twenty-nine stone steps from the courtyard, which is why early travellers called it the Staircase Church. Inside, three parallel naves are divided by columns of white marble, and the central haikal screen is carved from cedar and ebony inlaid with ivory and bone in geometric Coptic patterns. The thirteenth-century marble pulpit rests on thirteen slender columns, read as Christ and the twelve apostles. A handful of its icons date to the eighth century.
The church sits inside the Mar Girgis compound at the heart of Coptic Cairo, a short walk from the Mar Girgis Metro stop on Line 1. Entry is free, and the church is open daily outside of liturgy hours. Visitors are asked to dress modestly and to cover the shoulders. Liturgy is sung in Coptic and Arabic on Sunday mornings; the building is also a working parish, not only a monument. The Coptic Museum and the synagogue of Ben Ezra stand within the same walled quarter.