Situated in Old Cairo and surrounded by 29 Mosques and 20 Churches, BEN EZRA is one of the oldest synagogues in Egypt. Its location and interesting history makes also one of the most famous and special synagogues.

Ben Ezra synagogue is located in Old Cairo and surrounded by the oldest mosques and churches in Egypt. According to historians, the current place of the synagogue was initially a Coptic church in the 6th Century. This was proven by the architecture of the synagogue that resembles the churches architecture.

And later in the 9th Century, the Jews bought the church and the land around it. The place is considered holy and blessed to the Jews because it was proven that Moses prayed there. Before Moses left Egypt, he prayed there for the last time leaving traces or mark signs, which prove his existence in Egypt in those early times. When the great Rabbi Abraham Ben Ezra came to Egypt from Jerusalem and visited the Holy place where Moses prayed, he insisted to return the synagogue to the Jews. Ben Ezra rebuilt the synagogue, which is still called after his name.

Within the synagogue a special place called “Guenizeh” or Safe Keeping was built, where the old Torah was kept. The old Torah was written on deer skin around the year 475 B.C.

Many centuries later (in 1894), the  historian -Shichter- came to Egypt and he visited the synagogue, he found the Guenizeh in which the Old Torah has been kept. He also found thousands of books of various dates. Professor Shichter also found traces of another synagogue (Maimonidi’s Synagogue), which is now the Saint Barbara Coptic Cemetery. With the permission of the Jewish Congregation, the professor took part of the Old Torah back to America with him. The Old Torah is now spread over the Western world: a part is in Columbia University, another in New York, a third one in the British Museum and a further part in Austria and Torino.

In 1896, a collection of documents known as "Jineesah" were found in the temple. The document, written mostly in what was called "Hebrew Arabic", a variation of Arabic in Hebrew alphabet, exclusively used by Jews in the Middle Ages, reflected political, economic and social conditions of Jews under the Arab rule of Egypt as well as sectarial organizations and relations between different Jewish sects. The said documents contained a number of rare manuscripts of interpretations of the Old Testament, excerpts of linguistic research on Hebrew as well as documents explaining how Jews dealt with the Arab Muslim authorities. These documents, first compiled during the Fatimid era, were earlier written in Aramaic but were later written in Arabic, the official language in government departments (diwans).

At the back of the temple, there is a very deep well, where the coffers in which Prophet Moses as an infant was placed by his mother, was reportedly found.

Ben Ezra synagogue is worth visiting. One will see features from the three religions: a Byzantine architecture, a wooden clock in which is carved Kofic writings referring to the visit of Amr Ibn El Ass and the Old Torah

Memphis    

The Step Pyramid   

The Pyramid of Chephren