Coptic Museum in Cairo

Where to find the Coptic Museum

In a place that is very close to the Roman fort of Babylon, you can find the Coptic Museum. At this Museum you will find a very unique collection that belongs to the Coptic history in Egypt which is full of art and artifacts that is very interesting to visit. 

Egypt was under Roman rule for many years and at that time the Coptic Christianity was the dominant religion in Egypt. This was before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century. The coptic history in Egypt is fascinating and you can see this clearly in the museum arts and the architectural building of the churches. 

The museum presents a very important period that witnessed  great changes in the history of Egypt; this appears in the great diverse collection of Coptic artwork and cultural artifacts inside the museum. 

History of The Coptic Museum 

They started to take care of presenting the Coptic history from the 19th century, this was after the great discovery happened by the French Egyptologist, Gaston Maspero. He started to collect many pieces belonging to the coptice history and put them in one room at the Egyptian museum.

Then in 1908, Marcus Simaika Pasha got the intention to build a whole museum to present all these artifacts. He went to Patriarch Kyrillos V to gain his approval to build the coptic museum at a plot intended for a church construction in the first place. 

The museum was officially opened in 1910 but then it went through a restoration process and reopened in 1984. The government approved this Museum to be a State museum officially in 1931. From that day the collection gets bigger and bigger and it continues to grow throughout the years. In the year of 1939 they decided to transfer all the Christian Antiquities from the Egyptian Museum to the Coptic Museum and from that day any historical and coptic findings transferred directly to the Coptic Museum.

Facts about the Museum 

The Coptic Museum was created after a great effort from its founder who used all the necessary material to study and discover the Christian history in Egypt. Now, his museum is a great success in linking the Pharaonic, Greco-Roman and Islamic antiquity. 

You can find this museum in the middle of the fortress of Babylon which is a part of an old city built in 98 A.D by Emperor Trajan. This city also hosts all the historical churches like St. Sergius church, St. Barbara church and the Hanging Church, these churches date back to the 4th and 6th century.

On an area of 8,000m2, the Coptic museum exists, including the main building and the garden. Inside the main building there are lots of precious and rare pieces like historical icons and clothes, some old manuscripts, priestly garments, and wooden panels. The wooden ceilings and the marble fountains of the museum were collected specially for the museum from the old Coptic palaces. 

The coptic museum was entirely renovated before its centenary celebration to present the best of Coptic art and the culture history. Now, the Museum hosts a huge collection of 16,000 art works; about 1,200 of real treasure are presented to the public and about 6,000 papyrus manuscripts. These manuscripts were very important as they have the Psalms of David and the manuscripts of Nag Hammadi.

On 26th June 2006, President Hosni Mubarak shows a big interest in the Coptic Museum and came personally to inaugurate it in a huge event.

Let’s have a look at another important part of Egypt’s history which expresses the Egyptian identity. Coptic history is an integral part of Egyptian culture that you will truly enjoy discovering. Egypt always amazes the world with its treasures in all aspects, make sure to not miss any of them. A real adventure must be taken in the Coptic Egyptian history.