Thousands mourn Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenouda

Mourners packed the streets around Cairo's St. Mark's Cathedral on Sunday to pay final respects to the man who for many Egyptian Christians was the only spiritual leader they ever knew.

Pope Shenouda III died on Saturday at 88 after leading the Coptic Church for four decades, overseeing an impressive worldwide expansion but, after returning from internal exile in the 1980s, rarely clashing with the government.

With Christians, roughly 10 per cent of Egypt's population, worried about the new Islamist-dominated parliament, the church's next leader will face a complex challenge.

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports from Cairo.