El Mokattam Mountain Cave Church, also known as the Monastery of St Simon, is located in the Mokattam mountain in southeast Cairo.The Arabic name Mokattam, which means cut off or broken off, refers to how the low range of hills is divided into three sections. The highest segment is a low mountain landform called Moqattam Mountain.In the past the low mountain range was an important ancient Egyptian quarry site for limestone, used in the construction of temples and pyramids.The area that is known as ‘garbage city’ because of the large population of garbage collectors or Zabbaleen that live there. The Zabbaleen are descendants of farmers who started migrating from Upper Egypt to Cairo in the 1940s.
