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Built directly above the water gate, the Hanging Church ( Al-Mu'allaqah, "The Suspended" in Arabic) can be reached via an ornate portal on Mari Girgis street. Ascending a steep stairway, you enter a nineteenth-century vestibule displaying cassettes and videos of Coptic liturgies and papal sermons. Above this are the monks' quarters; beneath it lies a secret repository for valuables, only discovered last century. The main nave - whose ceiling is ribbed like an upturned boat or Ark - is separated from its side aisles by sixteen pillars, formerly painted with images of saints. Behind the marble pulpit, beautifully carved screens hide three haikals (altar areas) from the congregation. Accentuated by inlaid bone and ivory, their star patterns are similar to those found in mosques. Both pulpit and screens date from the thirteenth century, but the church was founded at least six hundred years earlier and may even have originated in the fourth century as a chapel for the soldiers of the bastion. Amongst its relics, the church once claimed to own an olive stone chewed by the Virgin Mary, to whom Al-Mu'allaqah is dedicated. Coptic Masses are held on Fridays (8-11am) and Sundays (7-10am).
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