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Cairo Tower
 The Cairo Tower, located on Gezira Island (Zemalak) which provides a panoramic vision of Cairo. This 187 meter tall tower, in the form of a latticework tube that fans out slightly at the top, is said to imitate a lotus plant, and ranks only fourth among the worlds highest towers. It is made of granite, the same material often used by the ancient Egyptians, and is about 45 meters taller than the Great Pyramid at
Giza. Today, the tower's restaurant rotates at an almost unnoticeable speed. Signatures of all the presidents and various other prominent figures who visited the tower are here in the
honouring book and even engraved in the tower's walls keeping unforgettable memories. But such politicians were not the only ones who loved the tower. In fact, one of its first visitors was Hollywood movie star, Katherine Hepburn, even though the tower had somewhat of a rocky footing back then in Egyptian-American
politics. It's completed in 1961 under the
direction of Naum Chebib, some say that the
tower is, after the Great Pyramid, Cairo's most
famous landmark. The best time to visit the
tower, is at sunset, when millions of twinkling
lights come to life. Looking west, the pyramids
mark the limits of the city and the start of the
desert. Below, the Nile River flows serenely
north to the Mediterranean, seeming to slice
Cairo in two. The Cairo Tower opens every day from 9:00 in the morning until 1:00 the next morning. Note that one must pay to take photos from the tower, and video camera tickets are somewhat expensive. |
Ibn Tulun Mosque
 The Ibn Tulun Mosque was completed in 879 AD at al-Qata'i by the founder of Egypt's Tulunid Dynasty ,Ahmad ibn Tulun. Al-Qata'i was about 2 kilometers from the old community of
Fustat. It was the 3 congregational mosque is the third largest mosque in the world. It is the oldest mosque in Egypt that has survived in a fairly original form. When the city center moved to what would become Cairo proper, away from al-Qata'a, the mosque fell into disuse. It was damaged when used as a shelter for pilgrims from North Africa to the Hijaz .but restored by Mamluk Sultan Lajin. (Lajin had been one of the accomplices in the assassination of Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil ibn Qalawun.The Ibn Tulun mosque reflects all the characteristic features of Abbasid art within the realm of architecture, and was obviously influenced, particularly with regards to the minaret, the great rectangular piers with engaged corner columns, the decorative motif and other features by the famous Samarra mosque in present day Iraq.
The mosque is surrounded by an enclosure that measures 118 x 138 meters (387 x 453 feet). Surrounding the mosque on three sides are narrow enclosed wings called ziyadas, and the mosque's famous minaret with its external spiral ramp is located within the northern ziyada. These small outer courtyards were an extension to insure privacy and separate the sanctified space from the public space of the outside world. Both the enclosure walls and the walls of the ziyada are surmounted by a unique crenellation, that is probably also of Samarra influence.
 However, the walls lack the heavy external buttresses and so were probably built strictly as a decorative motif. Rather , the frieze of simple square frames and the decorative crenellation seem almost delicate. This minaret, with its only remaining original element being the square base, communicates with the mosque by way of a passage. Its second story is cylindrical which is in tern surmounted by later Mumluk restorations in stone. The original minaret was built of brick. This is Cairo's only minaret with a spiraling external staircase and the overall structure is unique in Egypt.Five traditional transverse aisles on the qibla side of the courtyard, which are separated by the heavy piers of the arcades. There are 13 arches on each side of the courtyard. Though the columns are of brick, decorative capitals and bases were modeled from wet plaster. The arches themselves are mostly not completely round, but rather pointed at their peak, and high up in the spandrels of the arches are small windows which both allow for circulation within the mosque, and help light the arcades. The fountain (sahn), which was a later addition built by Sultan Ladjin, is surrounded by double arcades on three sides. However, Ibn Duqmaq described the original structure, which apparently was very similar to that at Samarra but was destroyed by fire in 986The prayer hall had a flat wooden roof and within, the mihrab bay, apparently restored during the Mamluk period, was accented by a wooden dome. On either side of the mihrab were two columns with perforated capitals. The inner column on each side is in the form of a basket, while the outer capital is decorated with vine leaves and branches of grapes detached from the background. The mihrab on a pier overlooking the courtyard Left: The mihrab and minbarBehind the qibla wall, which interestingly has a somewhat different orientation then other Cairo mosques, was the Dar al-Imara consisting of three rooms of the mihrab. The mosque's original decorations, presenting in both stucco and wood the most valuable and best preserved examples of the Samarra style, are of considerable importance from the standpoint of Islamic art/history. The stucco decorations are found both inside and outside the mosque, The inner arcades present a frieze of floral decoration that runs around the arches, and above the arches Kufic inscriptions of the Qur'an are said to run some two kilometers ( 6,600 feet). Interestingly, folktales maintain that this frieze was believed to have been carved onto the planks from Noah's Ark. The 128 window grilles of the mosque's external walls also feature intricate geometric patterns of stucco, with each pattern varying from the others. |
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The Mosque and Madrasa of Sultan Hassan
 The Mosque of Sultan Hassan
was a school, or madrasa, but for the first time in Cairo, the madrasa had also the status of a congregational mosque for Friday sermons. There are many interesting stories about this mosque, which is considered to be Cairo's finest example of early Mamluk architecture.
The founder of this gigantic monument was Sultan Hassan, the son of the great Mamluk Sultan, Al Nasser Mohamed Ibn (son of) Qalawoun.
Al Nasser Mohamed, his father, was responsible for many monuments around Cairo, including his mosque in the Citadel and his Madrasa in Ben El Qasrien. Qalawoun was also a great builder, but the Sultan Hassan Mosque remains the most important monument of this period. Sultan Hassan imported engineers from throughout the world to build his great monument.
The mosque is located near the Citadel, specifically in Salah El Din Square, sometimes referred to as Qala's Square.
This mosque is also considered one of the largest, not only in Cairo but in the whole Islamic world. It is a massive structure measuring some 150 meters long and 36 meters high. It's tallest minaret is 68 meters tall.
The entrance to the mosque cannot be missed, as it is the largest portal of any pre-modern Cairene Mosque-Madrasa complex in Egypt.
The mosque is free standing and has three facades. The fourth, western side has a large commercial complex and other dependencies belonging to the waqf (foundation) of Sultan Hassan which financed the foundation. Originally, the dome, which is not the original one, was described as bulbous, built of wood and covered with lead as in the dome of Imam Shafi'i. The current dome is more recent and is considered a misinterpretation of the original design. |
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The Coptic Museum
 The museum is situated behind the famous Roman fortress of Babylon in old Cairo (Misr Al-Qadima). The area surrounding the museum is like an open museum' that depicts the history of the Coptic period in Egypt. Marcus Simaika Pasha founded this museum in 1910 to collect material important to study the history of Christianity in Egypt. At that time there were several museums in Egypt: the Cairo Museum for pharaonic antiquities, the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. The Coptic Museum was built to fill the gap in the records of Egyptian history and art. The largest collection of Coptic artifacts and the most significant collection of Coptic art in the world are found in this museum and include 16,000 pieces. The Old Wing of the museum is a fine piece of architecture consisting of a series of large rooms. In 1931, the Egyptian government recognized the importance of the Coptic Museum and attached it to the state. In 1947, a large and huge new Wing was opened, its style similar to that of the Old Wing. The old wing of the museum contains a collection of wood furnishings and inlaid doors. Of special note is the sycamore wood sanctuary screen from the Church of Saint Barbara. The panels are recognizable as having been crafted in the Fatimid period during the eleventh or twelfth century. The collection housed in the new wing contains objects decorated with geometric designs, scrolls of acanthus and vine leaves, and friezes inhabited by rabbits, peacocks, birds, and rural activities. These styles and themes were passed from the Hellenistic and Coptic legacy into the Islamic artistic vocabulary in Egypt. |
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Coptic
Cairo (Churches & Fort of Babylon)
 It has been said that many of Cairo's residents know little about the Fort of Babylon, though certainly the Christians do, because several of their oldest churches are built into or on its walls. These include El-Muallaqa (the Hanging Church) and the Greek Church of St. George. A number of other Coptic churches are nearby. The area is called Old, or Coptic Cairo (Masr el Atika), for this is indeed the oldest part of the city, and the remains of the fort are Cairo proper's oldest original structure. Indeed, Cairo owes its existence to this fort. However, the ancient Egyptians were conscious almost from the start that this region, on the borders of Upper and Lower Egypt and originally two independent kingdoms, was the most strategic site in all of Egypt. Of course, ancient Memphis, which was just south of modern Cairo, existed from at least the beginning of the unification of the two kingdoms, and was considered the "balance of the Two Lands". Yet, by the time of Fort Babylon, human occupation on the east bank of the Nile in this area other than Babylon itself was confined to a bastion, Tendunyas (Arabic "Umm Dunayn"), a cemetery, Heliopolis several kilometers to the north which was then only a small town, and a few monasteries such as that of Theodorus (Dayr Tadrus).The site's history actually goes back to the beginning of Egypt's history, but we must look to textual references in order to find these roots. When the Nubian ruler, Piye came to Egypt from Napata in the south, we are told that in 730 BC he completed his conquest of the country by taking Memphis "like a cloudburst". He celebrated this victory by traveling to Heliopolis to make sacrifices to the ancient gods, and later by erecting a stela in the Temple of Amun at Gebel Barkal. According to tradition, the fort was first built by the Persians in about the sixth century B.C., but at that time it was on the cliffs near the river. When the Romans took possession of Egypt, they used the old fort for a while, recognizing its strategic importance on the Nile, but because of the problems of water delivery, the Roman Emperor Trajan relocated the fort to its present location, which at that time was nearer to the River. Since then, the Nile's course has moved some 400 yards to the north.By the time of the Arab conquest of 640, the fort was expansive, with forty foot high outer walls and a moat. It had a very successful port, two nilometers and a canal which linked it with the Red Sea. The fortress was accessed by two monumental gates. The first was on the west side, between two big round towers and gave directly onto the bank of the Nile. Today, this is the entrance to the Coptic Museum. Surmounting its northern tower now stand the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George, which echoes the shape of the tower. The southern tower is now ruined with its internal structure exposed. The second gate, located on the southern side of the fortress, is framed by two semicircular bastions not unlike those at the Roman camp built around the Temple of Luxor.
 It forms the base for one of Egypt's most famous Coptic churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary and known as Mu'allaqa (the Hanging Church). An important element of ancient Babylon was the Ity Canal of Heliopolis, which in the pharaonic era provided a direct link between Kheraha and Heliopolis. It created a lasting impression on Cairo, since its course was later almost entirely adopted for the famous Khalig, which ran alongside the western section of the Fatimid wall, dividing ancient Cairo into two parts. The Ity Canal was initiated by Nekau II in the 26th Dynasty for the purpose of linking the Nile to the Red Sea by way of Wadi Tumilat. It was completed by Darius and renovated by the Greeks. Not always did it branch off from the Nile at the same place, due to the lateral shift of the river's banks. The canal was completely re-dug during the reign of the Roman emperor, Trajan. Almost until the time it was finally filled in 1899, it was opened annually during the Nile Floods with grand ceremonies, which were actually holdovers from the "festival of Sepa" celebrated in antiquity. Obviously, Babylon became a Christian stronghold, particularly after problems arose between Western Christians and the Coptics. It became a refuge for these Christians who were persecuted by the Roman Christians of Alexandria.However, it was almost certainly its strategic location, together with its access to the Nile and the canal, that made the city so important. And it was the fall of Babylon on April 9, 641, following a siege lasting more than six months, that signaled the fall of Egypt to the Arabs under 'Amr ibn al-'As, even more so then the actual fall of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt at that
time. After the archaic city of Fustat was founded just outside the fortress by the Arabs, the fortress continued to be called Babylon for the next century, and in papyrus documents of the period, the names of Fustat and Babylon were used interchangeably. The Arabic place-name was Qasr al-Sham, meaning "Fortress of the Candle", which the area is still called
today Interestingly, it is only after the Muslim conquest of Egypt that most of the existing ancient churches (and synagogues) of Babylon were built. The Church of St. Cyrus (Abu Qir), which was later dedicated to Saint Barbara's after her relics were brought there from the Mu'allaqa church in the eleventh century, according to some sources may have been founded as early as the fourth century.
The Hanging Church was probably built some fifty years after the Arab Conquest, though Arabic legend attributes it construction to Balthazar, a son of Nebuchadnezzar and a Coptic woman. It was from these foundations that one of the greatest cities of the world sprang, from a humble beginning to one of the two largest cities in the world. Today, the ancient fort is almost entirely a Christian enclave, and one of Cairo's most visited tourist sites. |
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