Cairo: Places to Explore   Coptic Cairo (Mari Girgis)  The area
known as Mari Girgis (Saint George) is centuries older than the
Islamic city of Cairo. But even calling it Coptic Cairo isn't
entirely accurate, because it includes an important synagogue
and, nearby, some significant mosques. Known from the ancient
historians as the town of Babylon, it was here that the Roman
emperor Trajan (AD 88-117) decided to build a fortress around
the settlement. At a time when the Nile flowed 1,300 feet east
of its current course and was connected by way of canal to the
Red Sea, the fortress occupied a strategic location.  Tradition
holds that Saint Mark brought Christianity to Egypt in the first
century. The Christians of Egypt became the first in Africa to
embrace the new faith, and they were persecuted harshly for it.
Many fled to the desert or south to the Upper Nile Valley.
Later, under the Byzantine emperors, the local Christian
population—known as Copts (an Arabic derivative of the Greek
word for Egypt)—came out of