Dome

Central part of the west elevation, detail; The third of the great museums in Cairo, the Coptic Museum, was founded in 1910 by Morcos Simaika on a site donated by the Coptic patriarch within the ancient walls of Babylon [an area of Cairo] and adjacent to six of the oldest Coptic churches in the city. [Grove] "Coptic was the name given by sixteenth and seventeenth century Europeans to the Christian minority in Egypt, and to their language, the latest phase in the history of the ancient Egyptian language. Following suggestions at the end of the nineteenth century, in 1914 the Coptic Museum was founded by Marcus Simaika (1864-1944), a wealthy Copt and leading figure in encouraging Coptic interest in the Coptic past. Simaika won the support of the traditionalist patriarch of the Coptic Church, Cyril V (in office 1874-1927). The Church provided the land for the Museum, in Old Cairo, against the walls of the ancient Roman fortress, as well as many of the exhibits. In 1946 King Farouk opened the new museum building." [New wing added 1946]. Source: Digital Egypt for Universities; http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/ (accessed 1/19/2008)