Tours and Tickets to Experience Cave Church (St. Simon the Tanner Monastery)

There are plenty of ways to experience the Cave Church. Looking at ratings and reviews previously given by customers, these are the best tours available right now:

• Coptic Cairo Tour: Cave Church of Saint Simon and Old Cairo Churches
• Private Day Tour to Giza Pyramids, Sphinx, Coptic Cairo and Saint Simon Church in Cairo
• 5 Hours Trip from Cairo to El Mokkatm Mountain Cave Church
• 3-Day Private Tour in Cairo
• Holy Day Tour: Coptic Cairo and Saint Simon Church

Admission to the Cave Church is free, but you will need to factor in the cost to get there. Joining a tour is a great, hassle-free option, and tours typically include round-trip transportation from Cairo and Giza hotels. Half-day tours usually start around EGP 1,974 per person.

Yes, visiting the Cave Church is worth it for its beauty and interesting backstory. Garbage collectors from Cairo’s Coptic Christian community dug it out from the mountain in the 1970s. Tours also give you the chance to see the “Garbage City,” where waste items are sorted for recycling and disposal.

No, the Cave Church is not accessible for people with disabilities. It’s not wheelchair friendly, and visitors need to go up and down steps and spend time on their feet. Many tours to the church will require a bit of walking, so comfortable shoes are a must.

The Cave Church is located at Mokattam Mountain on the outskirts of Cairo, roughly 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Tahrir Square. Though you can get there by taxi, joining a tour that includes round-trip transportation may be a better option, as you won’t have to figure out your return trip.

There’s no best time of day to visit the Cave Church. However, to avoid crowds, do not visit on a Friday or Sunday (when it’s busiest with worshipers) or during the Christmas and Orthodox Easter holidays.