“Garbage City”, Cairo, Egypt, 2011. A celebration in the church in the cave. Muqattam is a hill that is famous for being the “mountain that moved”. In 939, the Caliph ordered Pope Abram to prove that Christianity could move mountains just by asking. Muqattam moved and Copts were saved from extermination. Since then, the mountain has been a sacred place.

“Garbage City”, Cairo, Egypt, 2011. A view of the church in the cave. The city was created in the ‘60s when the Copts fleeing persecution from nearby Imbaba began to take refuge at the foot of Muqattam, and Father Simon, the regent of the monastery, created new employment opportunities through the recycling of the city’s waste.

Al-Fayyum, a neighbourhood of Cairo, Egypt, 2011. A Coptic family at lunch. The Coptic or “old” neighbourhood is located in the oldest part of the Egyptian capital. Along with Shoubra it is the neighbourhood where most of the Christians live.

“Garbage City”, Cairo, Egypt, 2011. A view of “Garbage City”. Situated north of Cairo, at the foot of Mount Muqattam and its monastery, the area is famous for the work of the “zabbaliin”, the Coptic garbage collectors who, in their thousands, collect and recycle the entire city’s waste.

“Garbage City”, Cairo, Egypt, 2011. A restaurant near the church. Between the zabbaliin district and the monastery is somewhere for tourists to eat, a church and a reception centre for Christians in need of food and assistance.

Mardin, Turkey, 2011. Mihayel, 26, is one of the thirteen children of Abuna Gabriel, parish priest of the Church of the 40 Martyrs. e priest, his wife and their thirteen children – the youngest of whom help their father to celebrate Mass – live in the ancient church which is the only meeting place for the Chris- tian community in Mardin.

Mardin, Turkey, 2011. View of a church in the Monastery of Deyrul Zaf- ran on the Tur Abdin pla- teau. e Syriac Orthodox Christians of this region speak Aramaic, a Semitic language with more than 3000 years of history, spo- ken uently in Israel at the time of Jesus of Nazareth.

Qaraqosh, the border between Iraq and the autonomous region of Kurdistan, 2013. The Syrian Catholic Church of Al Tahira. Over 100,000 Chaldean Christians have fled from the town occupied by the militia of the Islamic State. To stay they would have had to convert to Islam or pay the “fee for the infidels”.

“Garbage City”, Cairo, Egypt, 2011. Keyrolos Melad, 11 years old, is one of the “zabbaliin”, the Coptic garbage collectors who, in their thousands, collect and recycle the entire city’s waste.

Qaraqosh, the border between Iraq and the autonomous region of Kurdistan, 2013. A member of the Christian militias controlling the entrance of a church. After 2010, the city's Christians have organised themselves into patrols to supervise the strategic points of the city. The volunteers who take part in this are paid by the Kurdish government.

Mardin, Turkey, 2011. An ancient Syriac and Armenian town, home today to about 600 Christians. Ignatius Maloyan was born here, the Armenian Catholic archbishop who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001. Because of its proximity to the border, dozens of Syrian refugees, mostly Christians, have poured into the region and are welcomed in the monasteries and 11 churches of the city.

Al-Alqosh, the border between Iraq and the autonomous region of Kurdistan, 2013. Christian decorations on a house at the entrance of the village, one of the few places inhabited only by Chaldean Christians in the Nineveh Plain.

Near Jericho, West Bank, 2012. A woman is baptised in the River Jordan at Qasr El Yahud where, according to the New Testament, Jesus was baptised. Qasr El Yahud is on the border between Palestine and Jordan. Other baptismal sites along the Jordan River, such as Yardenit, are not recognised by the Catholic Church.

Istanbul, Turkey, 2011. A Mass in the church of St George. The ancient Ottoman capital, known as Constantinople, is the seat of the Ecumenical and the Armenian Patriarchates, but in the whole country there only a few tens of thousands of Christians remain. The church of St George is the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Orthodox, where Patriarch Bartholomew celebrates.

Hah, Turchia, Regione del Tur Abdin, 2011. Rovine di una chiesa abbandonata. L'altopiano del Tur Abdin, fra Mardin e Midyat, è un luogo sacro per i siriaci di Siria e Turchia e ospita diversi monasteri come Deyr al Zafaran e Mor Gabriel. Nel tempo i governi turchi che si sono succeduti, hanno cambiato il nome all'altopiano e requisito le terre dove sorgono i monasteri. L'ultima disputa, in ordine di tempo, riguarda il monastero di Mor Gabriel.