# Cairo & Streetlife



## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Great images; full of character and atmosphere.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

openlyJane said:


> Great images; full of character and atmosphere.


Thank you for your kind accolades; it's what I'm trying to capture in a snap or in a split second. Click and go. What you see is what you get. No technicolor 'caprioles' or photoshop extravaganza.

Oh well, the images have also been criticised for being of 'quite poor quality'; whatever that means.


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

^^Ignore! hno:

Your photographs are very enjoyable to look at. :cheers:


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Nice updates. I love the 'sea' of satellite dishes.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## Sanat (Dec 30, 2012)

wow

cool images


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Are the above buildings homes? Lovely.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

openlyJane said:


> Are the above buildings homes? Lovely.


The first building is the Mahmud Khalil Modern Art Museum. Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Vase With Poppies’ was stolen from this museum in 2010.


The second is an abandoned and derelict private villa on Sharia (street) Hassan Sabri , tucked in between embassies and lush green in the upscale district of Zamalek on Gezira island, housed in simular prestigious buildings.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Cairo’s downtown was engineered by Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879, instrumental in the creation of the Suez Canal. 

He strove to create a “new city” that was European, modern, and easy to secure. It resulted in wide boulevards centered around spacious squares and grand buildings modeled after Europe’s architectural masterworks, capturing their grandeur and conjuring visions of ‘Paris on the Nile’. 

This in sharp contrast to the twisting, claustrophobic alleys and narrow streets of Fatimid Cairo. Downtown was once home to the prosperous elite of late 19th and early 20th century Cairo.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Cairo’s downtown aorta is historic Talaat Harb Street, connecting Tahrir Square and Talaat Harb Square. It was originally named 'Soliman Pasha Street', after Egypt's French-born general Soliman Pasha during the Muhammad Ali decades. It was renamed in 1954 after Talaat Harb, a leading Egyptian economist of the early 1900s during a sweeping effort by Egypt’s new president Nasser to eridicate all reminders of the previous dynasty and occupation era.













One fine ‘établissement’ on Talaat Harb Street is historic Café Riche. Its interior walls feature portraits, as in a hall of fame, of famous Egyptians such as Naguib Mahfouz, Om Kolthoum and Ahmed Amin who frequented the café over the years.











Downstairs, Café Riche’s political history comes alive — visitors can see the old printing press that was used to create nationalist literature and the secret passageway that helped smuggle activists in and out of hiding.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Across the street from Café Riche is the legendary Groppi on Talaat Harb Square— Cairo’s original chocolaterie and patisserie. Its captivating aristocratic architecture makes it easy to imagine the appeal it held for elite Cairo of old.











Established in the early 1900s, Groppi was once "the most celebrated tearoom this side of the Mediterranean" and was repeatedly the shop of choice for gifts among royalty, including princess Margaret and Elizabeth of England. It epitomized successful entrepreneurial innovation until socialist Nasser hit down town.










Groppi still exists today, with unprofessional staff, a minuscule choice of pastry and drinks, and tables and floors uncleaned for a long time making the establishment into a museum; not of its past glory but of Soviet-style mismanagement and contempt of customers.

Opposite Groppi’s neglected elegance stands the glimmering white grandeur of the Egyptian Diplomatic Club at the corner of Talaat Harb and Abdel Salam Araf Street. This club claims to be the center of the diplomatic community in Cairo as it holds meetings and events and publishes a monthly political magazine, The Egyptian Foreign Ministry


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Back to Groppi and the Egyptian Diplomats Club on Talaat Harb Square. Now turn onto the pedestrian thoroughfare of Sherifain Street, and you will be immediately struck by the architecture of the historic Cosmopolitan Hotel. 











Designed by Italian architect Alphonse Sasso and built in 1928, this building is a fine example of belle-époque architecture in Cairo. 

Further up the pedestrian walk is Egypt’s stock exchange, El Borsa. Newly renovated, El Borsa is a quintessential landmark of the architectural treasures to be found in the area.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Back the downtown's beating heart;this is Midan Mustafa Kamel:














We turn left past Groppi onto Mahmoud Bassiouni Street and take the second right onto Champollion. You will pass by one of downtown’s most neglected landmarks, the Mansouria Girls’ School. It is now an abandoned and dilapidated building that has scarcely managed to maintain its dignity over the years.























While the building and its grounds have been granted protection as historic monuments, nothing has been done to bring them back to their former glory, so visitors must be content to look and imagine from the street.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

A walking tour of historic downtown includes the ‘avenues’ of Mohamed Bassouini, Champollion and Mohamed Sabri Abu el Alam.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

The ‘avenues’ of Mohamed Bassouini and Mohamed Sabri Abu el Alam illustrate the ‘grandeur’ of downtown Cairo.


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Absolutely charming.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Part of Cairo's skyline, overlooking the river Nile:


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Cairo looks far more sleek and modern than I was anticipating.


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## MIBO (Aug 20, 2008)

^^ I those Cairo is one "of those grand cities" - with the good and bad aspect that it hasn't been that renovated/sanitized _ad nausea_ as most cities - it is dirty but it is a real city, instead of a huge open-air museum.

The day Cairo renovates its Downtown and shows many of its jewels it will nothing to envy cities like Istanbul, London, Paris or Rome IMO. It would attract hordes of tourist (there so much more than the Pyramids or the Egyptian Museum) but it might loose part of the charm it presently has. 
Cairo has nothing to envy to any of those cities in regards of heritage, grandeur and uniqueness. 


OnceBittenTwiceShy - Groppi is indeed horrible - from the service to the choices within the menu - but it is so full of History! 
Awww one of my dreams is to have a house in Bursa Area :lol:

Thanks for the pics!


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

^^ Accolades highly appreciated.

Cairo's 'hidden' gem is its fatimid legacy.

Islamic Cairo from the Fatimid era is centered around Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah, once the principal street of the capital. This street is named after the Fatimid Caliph who conquered Cairo in 969 AD and who was responsible for much of Cairo's building programs at that time. 

_ If it hadn't been for yesteryear's caliphs, masterminding breathtakingly beautiful Cairo in its Fatimid guise, the pyramids wouldn't have been bereft of their carefully polished casting stones.











Imagine three hallucinating desert prisma's, restored in their full pride, reflecting the sun, illuminating the sky over Cairo and subsequently diverting air traffic.

Oh, the twisted irony of stripping pyramids to create pre 1000 AD Cairo. Does history fool itself?_












Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah (El Mui'z Street) was the main Cairene route of that period. Back then, people would access the road through Bab Zuweila in the south and exit through Bab El Futuh in the north. Over the centuries many buildings have been constructed on this street. 













Of course, it is no longer a central street in Cairo. It is very narrow these days in comparison with more modern Cairo's downtown's Belle Epoque avenues, but it is nevertheless one of the most historical, representing Cairo's largest open-air museum of Islamic and medieval monuments.

This thread will feature a pictorial walk, encapsulating fatimid memory lane.

Like any previous, every picture featured stems from my own collection, unless otherwise stated.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

En route to Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah we first hit The Citadel, fortified by the Ayyubid ruler Salah al-Din (Saladin) between 1176 and 1183 CE, to protect it from the Crusaders. The Citadel houses museums and the majestic Mohamed Ali Mosque, proudly standing in the courtyard, also called the Alabaster Mosque. 







































From the medieval islamic citadel it’s only a short stroll to the Sultan Hassan complex, a massive Mamluk era mosque and madrassa, constructed and designed to accommodate schools for all four of the Sunni schools of thought: Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanafi and Hanbali.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Between the Citadel and the Mosque and Madrassa and Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah lies the almost non-accessible Sharia Bab al Wazir, tucked away in the city’s Tabbanah quarter.




















It is home to the Aqsunqur Mosque or the Mosque of Ibrahim Agha Mustahfizan.The mosque also serves as a funerary complex, containing the mausoleums of its founder Shams ad-Din Aqsunqur, his sons, a number of children of the Bahri Mamluk sultan an-Nasir Muhammad and that of its principal restorer, Ibrahim Agha al-Mustahfizan.











The mosque takes the ‘blue’ name from walls adorned with multicolored Turkish tiles that were installed during a mid-17th-century renovation by an Ottoman officer, who brought in the decoration from Istanbul and Damascus. 




















Slightly further up the alley we hit The Madrasa of Umm al-Sultan Sha'ban who ruled Egypt between 1376 and 1381 AD. 











The Madrasa of Umm al-Sultan Sha'ban that Sultan Sha'ban built at Tabbana quarter between Citadel and Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah was dedicated to his mother ‘Lady Baraka’. Since the Sultan was still a child when the building was constructed between 1368 and 1369, one may assume that Lady Baraka was actually the founder of this school. 











Tradition holds that the madrasa was built during Lady Baraka's pilgrimage to Mecca and Madina, which during the Mamluk period was a way in which female members of the court expressed their piety. Upon her return sometime between 1369 and 1370, she provided the endowment for the facility to commemorate her pilgrimage.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah’s entrance is marked by Bab Zuweila. Opposite, crossing a small square, we find Sharia Khayyamia, one of the oldest thoroughfares in Cairo.

Khayma means "tent" in Arabic and here, in the Street of the Tentmakers, the ancient craft of making huge tent pavilions, or suradeq, out of appliqued cloth patterns, has been carried on for hundreds and hundreds of years.












Unlike the dazzling tents themselves, the Street of the Tentmakers is a rather mysterious place, always in deep shadow- one of the last roofed-over medieval streets left in Cairo. Amidst a constant babble and a flow of hooting traffic, sellers of brightly colored appliqued cloth in phar-aonic and Islamic patterns sit for the most part motionless and silent in their small boutiques lining both sides of the street.












Should a cause to celebrate arise, a simple phone call to afarrash will set things in motion. The farrash is the man who rents suradeq - handmade or machine-printed, large or small, depending on the number of guests expected. It will be erected wherever you wish - on the street outside your front door, with suitable police permission, or on the lawn in your front garden.


The farrasheen are the workers who put up the tent. They are specially skilled at walking about mounted on high ladders, which they use as stilts - first to position the tall wooden poles and crossbars, and then to haul up and tie the heavy pieces of appliquéd awning to the framework.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

So now turn your back and face Bab Zuweila.

One enters Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah through Bab Zuweila to the south. Bab Zuweila's archway served as the southern gate of the fortress wall that encircled Islamic or Fatimid Cairo. The caliph used to watch the annual pilgrimage caravan going to Mecca from his palace that adjoined the gate. 












The same gate was notorious as a site of public executions. Criminals were hung in cupolas in the gate's walls. It was named after the Zuweila tribe that lived nearby. Bab Zuweila was also called Babet Al-Mutawali (the Responsible) and Al-Mutawali was responsible for conveying the problems of the people to the caliph.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

The Mosque of Sultan Al-Muayyad Sheikh is on the east side of Bab Zuweila. You can climb the minaret of the mosque through a door in the prayer hall and enjoy a spectacular view of Islamic Cairo from above. The exterior facade of this monument provides an excellent example of how Mamluk buildings were intended to dominate the urban setting, both physically and visually. 











The complex that Sultan al-Mu'ayyad built originally contained a madrasa-khanqah, dedicated to Sufis only , a Friday mosque, and two mausoleums. It was constructed between 1415 and 1422 AD. It replaced a prison which originally stood next to Bab Zuwayla.. 











The sanctuary of the mosque was one of the most richly decorated of its time; wall decoration was limited to the prayer hall, which was decorated with polychromatic marble high enough to include window and mihrab recesses. The marble columns are pre-Islamic and have diverse sizes and shapes, since they were drawn from structures across Cairo and the surrounding territories.




























The mihrab and minbar are both decorated in a typical period style. The minbar is decorated with finely carved wooden doors and panels.




















The mosque has a remarkably large pavilion compared to other mosques in the area with an ablutions fountain in the centre. The original fountain was said to have marble columns roofed with a gilded wooden dome above an awning, adding to the building's splendor.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Opposite the Sultan Muayyad Mosque we bump into the Sabil of Mohamed Ali Pasha. Muhammad Ali Pasha, who ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848, was a dynamic and far-sighted leader and is credited by many with the modernization of the country. When his son Tusun died of plague in 1816, the grief-stricken father commemorated him with a sabil (a public cistern and water dispenser) of an architectural and decorative style entirely new to Egypt.












Sabils and Kuttabs were almost everywhere in old Islamic Cairo during Mamluk and Ottoman times. Sabils are fountains of fresh water. Copper cups were placed next to these fountains so that the people would come and take their supply of water. Wealthy people used to build sabils to make the people love them, and they believed they would become closer to God by helping others. 

The second floor of the sabil was usually used as a kuttab, a place to teach Quran and Islamic subjects. The architecture of this time was so delicate that even simple facilities like sabils were designed to be pieces of art with intrinsic detail.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Typically and fortunately, you won't found 'my' enchanting fatimid mile, as I tenderly call it, on the regular agenda of a regular tour operator. It doesn't fit the silly putty approach to commandeer and direct tourists to spots that are profitable for tour operators and their marionets only. They'd drop you off at the famous Khan el-Khalili market to subsequently being ripped off at designated shops. 


We're still in Al-Muizz Street, Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Illah to be precisely, boasting the greatest concentration of medieval architectural treasures in the Islamic world, stretching from Bab Zuweila in the south to Bab Al-Futuh in the north. A walk along the 'alley' is nothing short from a hallucinating and enchanting trip down memory lane, such is the dazzling abundance of momumental architecture from the Fatimid era. Mui’zz Street simply blows one away.
































Below is the Sabil and Kuttab of Lady Nafisa Al Baydaa. Lady Nafisa was on elite woman, the mistress of the household, but also an ally and adviser to her husband. She was not only powerful but also independent, and had vast property in her own name. Among the many houses, gardens, and other properties she owned was a wekala (an urban caravanserai) located on the main street of Fatimid Cairo, just inside the southern gate of Bab Zuweila. 


In 1796 she remodelled it and gave it a fashionable new costume: a façade in the modern style of the day. In the corner of the building she inserted a sabil-kuttab, which dispensed free drinking water as a charity from its huge windows with ornate window grilles and offered free elementary education in the arcaded loggia on the upper floor.












This is the shop of Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed El Tarabishi, manufacturer of the so-called 'fez', originating from the Greek ‘tarboosh’, derived from the Persian ‘sar poosh’, meaning 'head cover'. 












Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Illah is intercepted halfway by Sharia Azhar. The Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri Complex borders on this Sharia Azhar and we have now completed half of the Fatimid Mile aka Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Illah, Of course, it is no longer a central street in Cairo. It is very narrow these days in comparison with more modern avenues, but it is nevertheless one of the most historical, representing Cairo's largest open-air museum of Islamic and medieval monuments.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

The foundation of Sultan al-Ghuri Madrassa, Mosque and Mausoleum was built between 1503 and 1505. The complex straddles both sides of Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Illah, with the congregational mosque-madrasa built on the western side, and the khanqah-mausoleum-sabil-kuttab on the eastern side. 












Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri was second to last of the Mamluk sultans and the last to enjoy a reign of any duration (1501-16). Al-Ghuri died of a heart attack while fighting the Ottoman Turks outside Aleppo, following the defection of Amir Khayrbak in the midst of the battle. His body was never found, and was not buried in his mausoleum on which he had spent a fortune.












In the chronicles of Ibn Iyas, Al-Ghuri is portrayed as an energetic and arbitrary despot, cruel and superstitious, and thoroughly human in his weaknesses. Time and again we read of someone savagely tortured to extract money from him, or of someone else hanged or cut in two for some offense, real or imaged. Nonetheless, al-Ghuri loved flowers and music, wrote poetry, and was attracted to Sufis and other pious men. He was a great patron of architecture, and a man of refined cultural tastes. 












The facades of the complex flanking al-Mu'izz Street, unlike the earlier religious complexes in the city, are not adjusted to the street alignment, and instead follow the orientation of the two sides of the complex. Since the two opposing facades are both set back from the original lines of the street, this divergent portion of the street is transformed into a sort of square which is semi-enclosed at the north end by the projection of the sabil-kuttab of the mausoleum, and at the south end by the projection of the minaret of the madrasa.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Further south, where Azhar Street intersects Al-Mu'izz Street, and just of the Qansuwah Al Ghuri complex, is Wekalet Al-Ghuri, which the Sultan built in 1504 AD. 










Wekalet Al-Ghuri was originally designed as a caravanserai, an urban inn for accommodating traders coming from all parts of the world as well as a marketplace for trading goods and a venue for making trade deals. Egypt then was the hub of overland trade caravans from east and west. The external stone façade is impressive with its array of windows. There are a few small windows on the first floor, but the upper storeys of the building have three rows of groupings of three windows of varying design. 












The top row is covered by mashrabiya panels, each panel being three windows wide. The entrance to the courtyard is via a great door mounted in the lowest of three stacked arches. Inside, the building is very regular, with the exception of the first floor, which has wide arcades intersected by a gallery. 













The building is made up of four floors, each comprising 28 rooms with domed ceilings, overlooking a rectangular-shaped courtyard with a mosaic fountain in the middle. Wekalet Al-Ghuri still stands out as one of the loftiest and most enduring Islamic monuments remaining. It rightly reflects an apex of harmony and symmetry in terms of both Islamic architecture and practical functionality.












Currently, the Wekalet is a school for handicrafts, a cultural center and a theatre for the performance of traditional Sufi whirling dances.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

From Wekalat Al Ghuri to Hussein Square, just off Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Allah. A small step for mankind. The Mosque of al-Azhar (the most blooming) was founded by Jawhar al-Siqilly, the Fatimid conqueror of Egypt, in 970, as the congregational mosque for the new city of al-Qahira. A university was established here in 988. 



















The courtyard was originally enclosed with three arcades. Part of the work of Caliph al-Hafiz (1138) is the addition of an arcade around all four sides of the courtyard, displaying keel-shaped arches, roundels, and keel-arched niches. 



















The mosque is called "Al-Azhar" after Fatama al-Zahraa, daughter of the Prophet Mohamed. and built on the orders of Caliph Mui'zz Li-Din Allah. The Azhar was a meeting place for Shi'a students and through centuries, it has remained a focal point of the famous university which has grown up around it. Allegedly, this is the oldest university in the world. Today the university built around the Mosque is the most prestigious of Muslim schools, and its students are highly esteemed for their traditional training.










Architecturally, the mosque is a palimpsest of all styles and influences that have passed through Egypt, with a large part of it having been renovated by Abdarrahman Khesheda.


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## Benonie (Dec 21, 2005)

Lovely set of pictures from the North African metropolis. Keep them coming!


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

After a slight digression and detour we’re now heading back to Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Allah to cover parts of the northern section. From Al Azhar we must cross Azhar Street, ne of the important streets in Cairo as it connects Salah Salem Street to downtown Opera Square.












This other part of Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Allah starts with Al Sagha, which means 'the gold sellers'. There are many gold and silver shops at the beginning of this part of the street. There are also many spice and perfume dealers, as well as the traditional gift shops that sell papyrus, gifts, shishas and other kinds of souvenirs.









































A few steps after these shops, you will enter the area of Bayn Al Qasrayn, meaning "between the two palaces". These two palaces used to exist 600 years ago, facing each other and opening on a public square that was the center of Fatimid Cairo. The western side of Bein El Qasrein has the spectacular facades belonging primarily to three early Mamluk complexes. 
The most southerly is the Madrasa and Mausoleum of Sultan Qalawun and it is the oldest of the three, being completed in 1279.


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

A great set of pictures of a fantastic looking city - so full of character and colour.


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## MilbertDavid (Nov 23, 2012)

this is one great city tour..I love the old sections.


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## capricorn2000 (Nov 30, 2006)

that old section of the city is quite amazing..it looks like it has never changed for the past several centuries.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

^^

Cheers *openlyJane*, *MilbertDavid* and *capricorn2000* for acknowledging the essence of this topic.

We're on the brink of having covered the enchanting 'fatimid mile' between Bab Zuweilah and Bab El Futuah, so wonderfully preserved for posterity.

The complex of Sultan Qala'un was built along Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Allah in 1284 by Sultan el-Mansur Qala'um. It comprises a mosque-madrasa, a mausoleum and a mauristan, which was replaced by a modern hospital in the 1920s. The complex is the earliest example of a new Syrian style of those times, and displays typical Mameluke architecture. 











The maristan was one of the reasons that the complex was built, since it is mentioned that while Qalawun was in the Sham region (Bilad al-Sham was the traditional Arab name for the region that today contains Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine), he became ill with what could have been fatal sickness. The doctors treated him with medicines brought from the Nur al-Din Mahmud Maristan in Damascus, which cured him. When he was recovered Qalawun visited the hospital and was greatly impressed with it. He made a vow to God that he would build a similar hospital in Cairo.


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## DaveF12 (Nov 25, 2011)

grand....thanks for showing these marvelous places.
I like to see the pyrmids along the Nile.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

The Sabil-Kuttab of Katkhuda is one of the most important monuments in the old part of Islamic Cairo. This building is an example of Ottoman and Mamluk architecture mixed with Islamic architecture. It was built in 1744 by a pioneer Egyptian architect, Katkhuda of Egypt who was one of the most intelligent architects of his time. Some architects describe it as "The treasure of Ottoman architecture".











Khusraw Pasha governed Egypt between 1534 and 1536. The sabil depicted below is the only building he erected here. It’s an independent charitable structure. It indicates the persistence of many aspects of Mamluk style and planning themes in the Ottoman period. The independent sabil-kuttab, a type introduced for the first time by Sultan Qaytbay in 1479, became the most favored of all commemorative charitable foundations in Ottoman Cairo.












The hypnotising walk in enchanting Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Allah ends with the northern walls and gates, including Bab El Naser, the Gate of Victory, and Bab El Futuah, the Gate of Conquests. They were both built in 1087 and were enlarged by Salah El Din Al Ayouby. It is possible to walk on the walls and near these gates by jumping from the roof of Mosque of Al Hakim and then to the walls. These gates demonstrate a great example of how Cairo was protected in the Fatimid period.

_This concludes my walk down fatimid memory lane and its labyrinthine magic._


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Thank you. Very interesting. Quite a metropolis.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## danmartin1985 (Mar 5, 2012)

splindid old section of the city..
BTW, how old do you think is the "Fatimid Mile"?


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

^^

Islamic Cairo from the Fatimid era is centered around Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah, once the principal street of the capital. This street is named after the Fatimid Caliph who conquered Cairo in 969 AD and who was responsible for much of Cairo's building programs at that time. 

Sharia El Mui'z Li Din Allah, aka El Mui'z Street, was the main Cairene route of that period. Back then, people would access the road through Bab Zuweila in the south and exit through Bab El Futuh in the north. Over the centuries many buildings have been constructed on this street. 

Of course, it is no longer a central street in Cairo. It is very narrow, almost claustrophobic and labyrinthine, in comparison with Cairo's more 'modern' downtown's 'Belle Epoque' avenues.


Let us continue discovering and encapsulating Cairo 'off the beaten track'.

These are the dilapidated and derelict remnants of what once was the grandstand of a hypodrome, called AlHamra, in the Heliopolis district of Cairo. It can be found just off buzzing Roxy Square, alongside a cacaphonic and maddening eight lane carriage way. 

Quite astonishing, shocking and surprising really. Hallucinating almost. It is like the two large metal birds roosting on their perches on the Liver Buildings at the Pier Head in Liverpool flapping their wings.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## DWest (Dec 3, 2009)

nice thread and thank you for showing the ancient section of Cairo.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Thank you for your appreciative likings.


Heliopolis is an upscale ‘suburb’ in Northern Cairo, accommodating the metropole’s airport, the Baron Palace and the Military Academy Stadium; just to name a few landmarks. The district was engineered and masterminded by the Belgian industrialistBaron Empain as well as Boghos Nubar, son of the then Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Pasha.

Heliopolis, in contrast with Islamic and downtown Cairo, features moorish elements and became famous for its eclectic and synthetic architectural style. Cairo's landscape diversity is almost frightening.


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## chcd (Oct 11, 2009)

Stupendous thread, your pictures are a welcome antidote to the clinical and overly processed style that seems to be in vogue. Please keep 'em coming! Shukran.


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## Hardcore Terrorist (Jul 28, 2010)

Wow, nice pictures! If I went to Cairo, could I get problems if I made photos in non-touristy areas?


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Hardcore Terrorist said:


> Wow, nice pictures! If I went to Cairo, could I get problems if I made photos in non-touristy areas?


One such area would be Mokattam Village, located at the foot of the Mokattam Mountains, with the rather 'frivolic' soubriquet of Garbage Village since it accommodates approx 70,000 of so-called 'zabbaleen', garbage people/collectors.

With a sobre display of respect and dignity and a proper 'baksheesh' (tip) you should have no problems.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Meanwhile, absorbed and embedded these days, the in 1907 large-scaled new urban planning city of Heliopolis was situated in the alienated desert, seven miles from the heart of Cairo… a "city of luxury and leisure", with broad avenues, surfacing like an oasis.






















There was housing for rent, offered in a range of innovative design types, targeting specific social classes with detached and terraced villas, apartment buildings, tenement blocks with balcony access and workers' bungalows.

Heliopolis also housed a large variety of recreational amenities including a golf course, a hippodrome that has already featured in this thread, and a huge amusements park.






















The Baron’s Palace is an entirely different affair in its eye-soring majestic 'pride' and pathetic megolamania. A pompous residence, South Asian’s Hindu meeting Cairo, modeled on Angor Wat and Orissa. These are for the faint-hearted:


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)




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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

The Baron's Palace is extraordinary. Great images.


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## Hardcore Terrorist (Jul 28, 2010)

OnceBittenTwiceShy said:


> One such area would be Mokattam Village, located at the foot of the Mokattam Mountains, with the rather 'frivolic' soubriquet of Garbage Village since it accommodates approx 70,000 of so-called 'zabbaleen', garbage people/collectors.
> 
> With a sobre display of respect and dignity and a proper 'baksheesh' (tip) you should have no problems.


Thanks for the reply. I'm more the kind of person who takes pictures of architecture, but sometimes people can get angry because they think I'm making pictures of them when I'm actually making a photo of a building that looks unremarkable to them. I've long wanted to visit Cairo, but I wondered if this would pose a problem there, as making pictures is forbidden in the Koran.
Of course, if it would seem rude in the culture, I would respect that.


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## OnceBittenTwiceShy (Mar 14, 2010)

Hardcore Terrorist said:


> I've long wanted to visit Cairo, but I wondered if this would pose a problem there, *as making pictures is forbidden in the Koran.* Of course, if it would seem rude in the culture, I would respect that.



I shall not embark on or initiate a religious debate. Let's put it this way: depicting the prophet is considered 'blasphemy'. 

You're more than welcome to capture Cairo in images. It would be a slightly different affair though if you would go 'off the beaten track' and indiscriminately snap away in rural areas.


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## Linguine (Aug 10, 2009)

very nice streetlife photos from Cairo.


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