The Cathedral of the Nativityكاتدرائية ميلاد المسيح

Inaugurated in January 2019, the Cathedral of the Nativity is the largest cathedral in the Middle East. This grand church, built to serve Egypt's ancient Coptic Christian community, features a vast interior, beautiful iconography and decoration, and an impressive exterior that has made it an immediate landmark. Its construction in the new capital, on a monumental scale, marked a significant moment for the Christian community in Egypt and for the country's religious heritage.

Like its neighbour, the cathedral carries a meaning beyond its walls. It was inaugurated on the same day as the great Al-Fattah Al-Aleem Mosque, in a joint ceremony intended to celebrate national unity and coexistence between Egypt's Muslims and Christians. Opening the largest cathedral in the region and a vast new mosque together, in the heart of the new capital, sent a deliberate and widely noted message of harmony and shared national identity.

The Cathedral of the Nativity is one of the defining monuments of the New Capital, embodying the values of tolerance and unity the new city seeks to project. Standing alongside the capital's great mosques and modern towers, it represents the place of Egypt's Christian heritage in the nation's future, and is among the most significant and symbolic landmarks of the new administrative city.

• What it is: the largest cathedral in the Middle East, in the New Capital.
• Arabic name: كاتدرائية ميلاد المسيح (Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ).
• Inaugurated: 2019.
• Serves: Egypt's Coptic Christian community.
• Significance: opened the same day as the Al-Fattah Al-Aleem Mosque, as a symbol of coexistence.
• Status: one of the new city's defining landmarks.

Sources include recent reports on the New Capital. Some details are approximate.