The Coptic Museum in Cairo comprises world's largest collection of Coptic Christian artwork. This museum in Cairo is a connecting link between ancient and Islamic Egypt. The gallery comprises two floors. The first floor displays carved stone and stucco, woodwork and frescoes, while the second floor includes textiles, icons, manuscripts and metalwork.
Coptic Museum was founded in 1910 AD by Morcos Smeika Pasha. The main objective of the Coptic Museum was displaying monuments and objects in order to trace the history of Christianity in Egypt. The Christian Church offered the land for this museum under the presidency of Pope Kerolos V who died in 1927 AD and left behind his successor Abba Yuanis XIXth, succeeding in1929 AD. The location of Coptic Museum is in a significant historical area within the
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city district of the Babylon Fort of the Roman period. The area of this museum is around 8000 square meters, surrounded by well maintained garden. The museum is recently renovated adding two extensions, namely the ancient and modern aisles.
The archive of Coptic Museum can be classified into glass, frescoes, icons, wood, stone, manuscripts, textiles, metals, ivory and bone, ostraca, reeds, bones and pottery works. There are almost 16000 pieces of articles on display, each having its own story of importance. There are some Nag Hammadi manuscripts, which are the ancient copies of Gnostic-Christian writings. The Gospel of Thomas being one of them.
The Coptic Museum is open from 9am to 5 pm and can be reached by bus, metro or taxi.
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