The Coptic Museum In Cairo Features:
Largely built in 1947, this charming museum houses the finest collection of Coptic art in the world.
The building itself has undergone extensive renovation since suffering earthquake damage in 1992 and boasts elaborately painted wooden ceilings, elegant mashrabiyya windows, and a garden courtyard.
The exhibits date back to Egypt’s Christian era and both Pharaonic and Islamic influences are evident in the artifacts on display.
Early exhibits carry motifs and symbols, such as ankhs and Horus-like falcons, that are recognizably ancient Egyptian.
Elsewhere, carved capitals from an early Coptic cathedral in Alexandria display a mastery of stone carving that would later come to fruition during the era of the Mamluks.
A 6th-century Coptic stone pulpit resembles the stairs and shrine of the pyramid complex at Saqqara and also prefigures the minbars found in all Cairo mosques.
Still more fascinating are the crudely painted depictions of Mary suckling Jesus, which directly echo images found all over Egypt of Isis nursing Horus.
Many of the pieces are also Classical in inspiration, a legacy of Alexander’s Ptolemaic dynasty and Roman rule.
On the upper floor are the finely woven Carved stone textiles for capital, Coptic which the Museum Copts were once famous.
There are also lavishly embroidered silk garments, icons, and what is claimed by some to be the oldest book in the world, the 1,600-year-old Coptic book of the Psalms of David.
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