Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/150

Certainly not the least interesting of the numerous objects which delight the traveller in and around the glorious city of Cairo are the Roman fortress-walls with their included Christian town and its neighbourhood known as "Musr el Ateekah," or "Old Cairo," and the ancient Christian "Dayrs," or convents in the same vicinity, which lift themselves up between the Nile and the desert, amidst the vast pottery-strewn mounds of the Egypto-Roman Babylon and the Arabian Fostat.

These ancient and too little known establishments may be divided into the following groups, arranged in their order of succession as a visitor would arrive at them, starting from Cairo.

I. Dayr Mari Meena, containing the Kineseh, or Church of S. Menas, belonging to the Copts, with the Church or chapel attached, which, after being occupied for many years by the Syrians has been restored to the Copts; and, secondly, an Armenian Church, not of ancient date.

II. The walled village of Dayr Abou Sephîn, which includes the Churches of (1) Sitt Miriam; (2) Mari Macarius and Abou Sephîn; and (3) the Church of Amba. Shenouda.^[1]

III. The ancient Roman fortress of Musr el Ateekah, Old Cairo, par excellence, commonly called Dayr esh Shema, which contains within its venerable and massive walls (A) a Jewish synagogue, formerly the Christian Church of S. Michael; (B) a Roman Catholic Church of no great antiquity; (C) a Greek Convent and Church; and (D) the five Coptic Churches, of which two are dedicated to Sitt Miriam, the Blessed Virgin