Ben Ezra Synagogue

A modest hall in Old Cairo that yielded one of the greatest treasures of medieval Jewish history.

Originally a Coptic church acquired by the Jewish community in the 9th century and later rebuilt, the synagogue sits by the spot where tradition says the infant Moses was found. Its storeroom held the Cairo Geniza, a hoard of nearly 300,000 medieval manuscripts recovered in the late 19th century that transformed the study of Mediterranean life.