Located on the Mokattam Mountain in Cairo, St. Simon Monastery (aka the Cave Church) is the largest church in the Middle East. It was established by a Zabbaleen (means “garbage collectors”) community which is famous for garbage scavanging. Around 1969, Cairo decided to gather all Zabbaleens who were mostly Coptic Christians into a single settlement. After a fire destroyed their first church in 1975, they began building a monastery into the cliffside which came to this day as the St. Simon Monastery. They used a pre-existing cave an built a monastery with around 2000 people capacity. There are also other churches in the nearby caves which create a great church complex.
