Cave church the local Coptic Church in Mokattam Village was established in 1975. After the establishment of the church , the Zabbaleen felt more secure in their location and only then began to use more permanent building materials , such as stone and bricks , for their homes . Given their previous experience of eviction from Giza in 1970 , the Zabbaleen had lived in temporary tin huts up till that point . In 1976 , a large fire broke out Manshiyet Nasir , which led to the beginning of the construction of the first church below the Mokkatam mountain on a site of 1.000 square meters . more churches have been built into caves found in Mokkatam . Currently , there are seven cave churches hidden among the caves of Mokattam Mountain . The monastery of St Simon the Tanner is the largest and it has an amphitheater with seating capacity 20.000 . this church is the largest church in the Middle East . After finishing you will back to your start point .