A kilometre of medieval Cairo with the densest concentration of Islamic architecture in the world, pedestrianised and lit at night.
Al-Muizz li-Din Allah Street runs about a kilometre through the heart of the Fatimid city, from Bab al-Futuh in the north to Bab Zuweila in the south, and UNESCO has described it as holding the greatest concentration of medieval Islamic architectural treasure in the world.
It was the main artery of al-Qahira when the Fatimids laid the city out in 969, and it has been continuously built along ever since, so the street is a stratigraphy: Fatimid gates, Ayyubid walls, Mamluk mosques and mausolea, Ottoman houses and sabils, all in a line.
Walking it
Start at the north end.
Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr, the Gate of Conquest and the Gate of Victory, are Fatimid, from 1087, built by Armenian architects in stone rather than brick — massive and military and quite unlike anything else in the city. You can walk on top of the walls between them.
Coming south: the Mosque of al-Hakim, the Fatimid caliph who disappeared in 1021 and whose followers became the Druze; the Qalawun complex of 1285, with a hospital, madrasa and mausoleum, and one of the finest Mamluk interiors anywhere; the Madrasa of al-Nasir Muhammad; the Barquq complex; the Sabil-Kuttab of Abdel Rahman Katkhuda, an Ottoman fountain-and-school that stands where the street forks.
Further south, the Bayt al-Suhaymi, a seventeenth-century merchant’s house around a courtyard, with mashrabiya throughout, is the best domestic interior on the street and is separately ticketed.
Then Khan el-Khalili and Al-Azhar, then the Tentmakers’ Street, then Bab Zuweila, whose minarets can be climbed for the best rooftop view in Islamic Cairo.
Tickets
Some monuments are free, some individually ticketed, and there has been a combined ticket for the northern section at various points. Arrangements change. Buy at the individual gates and expect to tip the caretakers who unlock things.
At night
The northern section is pedestrianised and floodlit in the evening, and this is when to do it. The buildings look better, the heat has gone, and the street fills with Cairene families out for the evening, particularly during Ramadan when it is at its best.
Practicalities
Modest dress throughout; shoes off in the mosques; headscarf for women.
The street is uneven, crowded and full of handcarts. It is not a museum quarter — people live and work along it.
Allow half a day at minimum. Doing this, Khan el-Khalili and al-Azhar properly is a full one.
More History
Coptic Cairo
A walled compound inside a Roman fortress holding a church on stilts, a synagogue, and a crypt where the Holy Family is said to have sheltered.
The City of the Dead
A necropolis several kilometres long where Mamluk sultans are buried and living families have made homes among the tombs.