Egypt is the cradle of human civilization: a fact hardly contested among authoritative historians. But Egypt also enjoys a focal geopolitical position, connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. On its land, migrations of people, traditions, philosophies and religious beliefs succeeded each other for thousands of years. Evidence of this succession is still visible in the accumulation of monuments and sites attesting to a uniquely comprehensive cultural heritage. Indeed, one of the phenomena which shaped Egypt's distinctive identity, and explains its pervasive influence on the then known world, was a dynamism that accommodated and re-formulated these successive cultures into one homogenous and harmonious Egyptian canvas. Egypt is one civilization woven of many strands, threaded by successive and intertwining eras; the Pharaonic, the Graeco-Roman, the Coptic Christian, and the Islamic eras
Because the Egyptian people are the essential product of the "harmony in diversity", "otherness" has become an integral component of their awareness, a basic constituent of their national and cultural identity. This characteristic has yielded one important result: Egypt was, and still is, the land of refuge in the widest sense of the word, a place of tolerance and dialogue for peoples, races, cultures and religions.
Many people in the world may not be aware of the special significance all Egyptians attribute to the fact that the Holy Family, when Christ was an infant, found haven in Egypt for nearly four years after their flight out of fear from the persecution of King Herod. Egypt's re-paving of the route the Holy Family followed it part of a comprehensive policy to revive, and give prominence to, all the religious landmarks which constitute the spiritual heritage of the one Egyptian civilization.
An icon showing the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt - Coptic Museum, Old Cairo
The advent of the Holy Family to Egypt, seeking refuge, is an event of the utmost significance in Egypt’s long, long history. Moved by the spirit of prophecy, Hosea foresaw the flight from Bethlehem where there was no safe place for the Christ Child to lay His head, and the eventual return of the holy refugees from their sanctuary in Egypt, where Jesus had found a place in the hearts of the Gentiles, when He uttered God's words:"Out of Egypt have I called My Son". (Hosea 11:1)
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