The Monastery of Semaan Al-Kharraz is one of the most important archaeological monasteries globally, and it is excavated inside the Mokattam Mountain. It can accommodate two thousand people, and the Church of Anba Paula is the first for tourists.
The name of this monastery goes back to one of the saints of Christianity, Saint Simon Al-Kharraz. The story of the construction of this monastery goes back to the days of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz Lidin Allah, and he had a Jewish minister who was fiercely hostile to Christians. In one of the literary sessions held by the Caliph, the Coptic Patriarch, Abram Ibn Zara’a, attended The Syriac, along with a group of bishops, discuss with the Jews matters of religion, and during the session, one of the bishops accused the Jews of ignorance, which angered the Jewish minister and affected himself and decided to respond to the Christians.

And the Jewish minister searched until he found a verse in the New Testament from the Bible that says: (If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you). The minister went and presented it to the Caliph, and the Caliph wanted In getting rid of the mountain located east of Cairo, that is, the Mokattam mountain, the proposal left him.
The Caliph sent the Coptic Patriarch informing him of a request to move the mountain to prove the veracity of the verse and gave him 3 days. Hence, the whole church fasted and prayed during that period. On the morning of the third day, the Virgin Mary appeared to the Patriarch and told him to go out to see a man carrying a jar of water who would be the chosen one to complete the miracle. Indeed the Patriarch directed To implement what the Virgin had told him, and during that, he found a shoemaker named Samaan Al-Kharraz and told him that task. After a terrible earthquake, the people and St. Simeon Al-Kharraz stopped and prayed until the Mokattam mountain was moved from east Cairo to its current location. The mountain moved to appear in the current Mokattam area.