Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±

Ben Ezra Synagogue

Cairo


Just outside the walls of the Coptic enclave, the 9th-century Ben Ezra Synagogue occupies the shell of a 4th-century Christian church. Tradition marks this as the spot where the prophet Jeremiah gathered the Jews in the 6th century after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Jerusalem temple. The adjacent spring is supposed to mark the place where the pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the reeds, and also where Mary drew water to wash Jesus.

In the 12th century the synagogue was restored by Abraham Ben Ezra, rabbi of Jerusalem. In 1890 a cache of more than 250,000 historic papers, known as the Geniza documents, was uncovered in the synagogue. From them, researchers have been able to piece together details of the life of the North African Jewish community from the 11th to 13th centuries.


Contact

Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±'s must-see attractions

Nearby Cairo attractions

1. Coptic Museum

0.02 MILES

This museum, founded in 1908, houses Coptic art from the earliest days of Christianity in Egypt right through to early Islam. It is a beautiful place, as…

2. Church of St Barbara

0.03 MILES

At the corner past Abu Sarga, the Church of St Barbara is dedicated to a martyr who was beaten to death by her father for trying to convert him to…

3. Church of St Sergius & Bacchus

0.04 MILES

This is the oldest church inside Coptic Cairo's walls, built in the 11th century with 4th-century pillars. It honours the Roman soldiers Sergius and…

4. Hanging Church

0.06 MILES

Just south of the Coptic Museum on Sharia Mar Girgis (the main road parallel with the metro), a stone facade inscribed with Coptic and Arabic marks the…

5. Roman Towers

0.06 MILES

In AD 98 the Roman emperor Trajan enlarged an existing fortress here, called Babylon, likely a corruption of Per-hapi-en-on (Estate of the Nile God at On)…

7. Mosque of Amr Ibn Al As

0.33 MILES

The first mosque built in Egypt, this structure was established in AD 642 by the general who conquered Egypt for Islam. Built on the site where Ibn Al As…

8. Nilometer

0.37 MILES

At the very southern tip of Roda, inside the Monastirli Palace compound, the Nilometer was constructed in AD 861. Like others built millennia before, it…