I will say this: we didn’t spend enough time here and would go back if we return to Cairo. This part of Cairo pre-dates the founding of present day Cairo in 969, and is filled with mosques and madrasas and ancient alleyways.
Even just wandering around you can see there is an incredible amount of interesting things to spend time with. The highlights from what we saw follow below. The street that we walked is known as Al Moez and when you enter the first sight (whatever that might be), you buy a ticket for LE240 (about $8). Hang on to that ticket because it will get you into every other sight along the street! An incredible value.
Unfortunately because of that you’re not certain what you’re stepping into when you cross each threshold. Sometimes a mosque, sometimes a school, sometimes a hammam. But by all means step in, everything we saw was worth at least a few minutes time.
This is the beautiful entrance to the al-Salih complex (madrassa, hospital and mausoleum) – it was built by Al-Salih’s wife Shajar Al-Durr in 1250.
Below is the Qalawun complex which is a massive pious complex in built by Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun from 1284 to 1285. It originally held a mosque, mausoleum, school, and hospital. The hospital served Cairo for 500 years begore it was demolished in 1910.
The building is widely regarded as one of the major monuments of Islamic Cairo and of Mamluk architecture and is notable for the size and scope of its contributions to legal scholarship and charitable operations as well as for the richness of its architecture
We wandered through here with utter surprise because it looks pretty basic from the street.
The incredible jewel below is known as Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Barquq.
It was commissioned by Sultan al-Zahir Barquq as a school for religious education in the four Islamic schools of thought. If you’re interested in those, and they are interesting, you can read about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhhab
This mosque-madrasa was built in the late 1300s and is notable as the first to be built with paid labor – no slaves were used in the construction.
Around every turn there were surprises. What is on the other side of these doors?
The only sound you’d hear is of the gentle Cairo breeze.
Imagine that this is 700 years old and continues to function today. And then look up inside the beautiful sanctuary! Incredible.
Even the door to leave was a thing of beauty. Just look at the carvings!
Continuing up the street we came to another mosque, this one called Al-Hakim Mosque.
It was completed in the year 1010 and was in use until it was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1303. Then it feel into disuse and disrepair over the centuries until it was fully restored in the 1970s. So peaceful now.
You can see why we need to go back. We had to skip a few of the gems in Old Cairo but will definitely make it a priority to see them should we return.
