The Copts are an ancient sect of Christians that formed in Egypt in the first century AD when Egypt was under Roman control. They had their own language and script (Coptic), evolved from the language and hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians. In the 7th century, Islam came to Egypt and became the dominant religion. Coptic Egyptian was still the main spoken language for another 300 years, but gradually Arabic replaced Coptic. Now there are only a few hundred speakers since a revival of the language in the 19th century.
The most famous Coptic church in Egypt is the Hanging Church in Cairo, which my tour visited on our first afternoon. On our short walk to the church, two of our tour members separated from the group, causing a little stir. As I remember, we didn't find them until after we left the church.
Here are some more photos from my visit to the Hanging Church.
2 comments:
Whoa! Out of the ether comes a blog post! Three, even!
Yes, I remembered that my blog still doesn't have much after I left Turkey in mid-November. I probably have thousands of photos yet to post from Egypt, Jordan, Istanbul, Bulgaria, and New York.
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