Pictured is a sculpture and framed icon of St. Simon the Tanner in Saint Simon the Tanner`s Hall, part of the Monastery of Saint Simon in the Mokattam Mountains which are close to the center of Cairo. The Coptic Christian residents of Garbage City discovered a cave in the 1970`s and by the 1990`s cleared hundreds of tons of boulders, creating a complex of churches and meeting halls that compose the Monastery of St. Simon. St. Simon Tanner Hall is enclosed entirely within the cave and seats about 2,000. It`s walls are carved with stories from the bible. It sits above the Saint Marcus Church. Garbage City is the nickname for Mokattam Village at the foot of the mountains, home to 20,000 Zabbaleen, 90% of whom are Coptic Christians. They survive by collecting and recycling garbage. St. Simon the Tanner, aslo known as St. Simon the Shoemaker, is the Coptic Orthodox Saint associated with the story of the miracle of moving the Mokattam mountain. Before miracle he used to carry water to the sick every morning before work, and he had plucked out his eye because of the bible verse Matthew 5:29-30, `If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better to lose one part of your body than your whole body to be thrown into hell`.
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