Interior of Ben Ezra Synagogue. Old Cairo, Egypt

"Built in 1892 on the foundations of a collapsed eleventh-century predecessor, the Ben Ezra Synagogue is the source of one of the greatest manuscript finds in modern history, some 140,000 pages of medieval texts retrieved in 1896 from the synagogue's geniza. In the early 1980s the relatively modest two-story structure, bordered on the east by a Roman fortification wall and hemmed in by the sixth-century Church of St. Barbara and a Greek Catholic cemetery, was no longer a functioning place of worship. Most of Cairo's Jewish community either emigrated to Israel or moved north to the city's more central districts decades ago. By 1968, the structure was closed to the public." [silberman N., October 1995: Cultural Taxidermy. Archeology, september-October 1995]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.