The Holy Family moved from the Matareya area and headed towards old Cairo, through the old Egyptian Gulf street (currently Port Said Street) and passed through Haret Zuwaila area.
The whole area was called Haret Zuwaila, and the name goes back to a Moroccan tribe “Zuwaila” that was used by Jawhar al-Siqilli during his founding of the city of Cairo, and after the demise of the Fatimid state and the advent of the Ayyubid state, the Zuwaila tribe returned to its original home in Morocco and this area remained with the same name.
There is an ancient church in the name of the Virgin Mary in Haret Zuweila. Al-Maqrizi told us that the date of its establishment goes back to about two hundred years before the Arabs entered Egypt, approximately in the fifth century AD, and it was reconstructed in the eleventh century.
It was the place of the patriarchal seat for 23 successive patriarchs from 1300 to 1660 AD