Cathedral of the Nativity

The Cathedral of the Nativity is the central Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Egypts New Administrative Capital, about 45 km east of Cairo. Commissioned by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, it was inaugurated on January 6, 2019, on Orthodox Christmas Eve, jointly by the president and Pope Tawadros II. The ceremony was a deliberate political gesture: el-Sisi became the first Egyptian head of state to attend a Coptic Christmas mass, and the building marked the first major Christian cathedral in an Egyptian capital since the 19th century. With seating for around 8,200 worshippers it is the largest church in the Middle East. The neighbouring al-Fattah al-Alim Mosque, one of the regions largest, opened the same day to underline the symbolic pairing. The architecture pairs traditional Coptic domes with modern concrete engineering.