Church of the Virgin Mary

Coptic Area
Cairo, Egypt

The interior of this early church, built according to a basilican plan, is an amalgam of many periods and styles: Roman columns, contemporary pews, medieval arches, and Arabic architraves bear eloquent witness to the long history of the the Coptic Church in Egypt. Individual churches have been subject to recurrent cycles of neglect, even flooding (!), followed by repair and restoration, as here in 1999. See the Wikipedia article for more photos (post-restoration) of the interior.