Khan el-Khalili, Al-Azhar & Islamic Cairo — 1,000 Years of Arab Civilization
Islamic Cairo (al-Qahira al-Islamiyya — the medieval city founded by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz in 969 CE, designated UNESCO World Heritage Site) is the largest concentration of medieval Islamic monuments in the world: the Al-Azhar mosque (the oldest university in the world, founded 970 CE), the Khan el-Khalili bazaar (the great covered market operating continuously since 1382), and the 2-kilometre stretch of Al-Muizz Street with its extraordinary sequence of medieval mosques, mausoleums, and palaces.
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Khan el-Khalili — The Grand Bazaar of Cairo
Khan el-Khalili (the covered bazaar in the heart of Fatimid Cairo, established 1382 by Emir Djaharks el-Khalili, the master of horse of Sultan Barquq of the Mamluk dynasty, on the site of the Fatimid royal cemetery — operating continuously as a trading market for over 640 years): Khan el-Khalili is the largest and oldest surviving covered market in the Arab world, the commercial and social heart of Islamic Cairo, and the principal tourist shopping destination in Egypt; the bazaar specializes in gold and silver jewellery (the gold souk along Al-Mu'izz Street is the centre of the Egyptian gold market), spices, perfume oils, papyrus, alabaster, leather goods, copper and brass handicrafts, Bedouin silver jewellery, and traditional Egyptian clothing; the Fishawi's Café (Midan Khan el-Khalili, open continuously since 1773 and claimed to be the oldest café in Cairo) serves strong coffee and mint tea in a setting of ornate mirrors, old photographs, and marble tables virtually unchanged since the 18th century.
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Al-Azhar Mosque & University — The World's Oldest University
Al-Azhar Mosque and University (Midan al-Azhar, Islamic Cairo — built 970-972 CE by the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqilli immediately after the Fatimid conquest of Egypt, the mosque was converted into a madrasa (Islamic school) in 988 CE by Caliph Al-Aziz Billah): Al-Azhar (meaning 'the most resplendent') is considered the oldest continuously operating university in the world (founded 970 CE — predating the University of Bologna by approximately 120 years and the University of Oxford by approximately 150 years) and the supreme authority on Sunni Islamic scholarship worldwide; Al-Azhar has trained Islamic scholars from across the Muslim world for over 1,000 years; the mosque complex (expanded numerous times over 10 centuries) contains five minarets in different styles representing different historical periods of Islamic architecture, from the Fatimid original (970 CE) to the Mamluk (14th century) and Ottoman (17th century) additions.
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Al-Muizz Street — The Spine of Fatimid Cairo
Al-Muizz li-Din Allah Street (Shari'a Al-Mu'izz, the main north-south street of the Fatimid city, running approximately 1 kilometre from Bab al-Futuh (the Gate of Conquests, 1087) in the north to Bab Zuweila (the Gate of Zuweila, 1092) in the south — the largest concentration of medieval Islamic monuments in the world per unit length): the street is named after the Fatimid Caliph al-Muizz li-Din Allah who commissioned the founding of Cairo in 969 CE; the key monuments along Al-Muizz Street include: the Mosque and Madrasa of Sultan Barquq (1386, the first royal Mamluk monument in Cairo), the Complex of Qalawun (1284-1285, the mausoleum, madrasa, and hospital of Sultan Qalawun — the finest Mamluk funerary complex in Cairo, with an extraordinary inlaid marble interior), the Mosque of Al-Nasir Muhammad (1318-1335, the primary mosque of the most powerful Mamluk sultan), and the Mosque of Al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh (1415-1422, accessible by climbing to the minarets attached to the Bab Zuweila gate).
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Bab Zuweila — The Last Surviving Gate of Fatimid Cairo
Bab Zuweila (the southern gate of the Fatimid walled city, built 1092 CE by the architect Badr al-Jamali, 25 metres high, the only one of the three main Fatimid gates to survive largely intact — the north gates Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr were also preserved): the gate towers are accessible to visitors, with a climb up the interior of one tower and across the arch of the gate to the base of the minarets of the Mosque of Al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh that were added to the gate towers in the 15th century, providing one of the finest panoramic views over the rooftops of Islamic Cairo; Bab Zuweila was historically the execution site of Mamluk Cairo — the last Mamluk sultan, Tuman Bay II, was hanged from the gate by the Ottoman conqueror Sultan Selim I in 1517; the gate is flanked by the Tentmakers' Market (Khiyamiyya — the covered market where tent-makers and appliqué craftsmen produce the elaborate tent-roof decorations used in Egyptian weddings and funerals).
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Citadel of Saladin & the Muhammad Ali Mosque
The Citadel of Saladin (Qal'at Salah al-Din, the fortified medieval citadel on the Muqattam Hills overlooking Cairo — built 1176-1183 by Salah al-Din (Saladin) to defend Cairo against the Crusaders, subsequently serving as the seat of Egyptian government for 700 years until the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 19th century): the Citadel contains the Mosque of Muhammad Ali (the Alabaster Mosque, completed 1848, designed by Yusuf Bushnaq in the Ottoman Baroque style — the dominant landmark of the Cairo skyline, with its two slender minarets and large central dome visible from most of the city), the Mosque of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (1318-1335, the finest surviving example of Mamluk religious architecture in Egypt), and museums documenting the Egyptian military and police history.
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Coptic Cairo & the Hanging Church
Coptic Cairo (Mari Girgis area, south of central Cairo — the oldest continuously inhabited part of greater Cairo, on the site of the Roman fortress of Babylon (built approximately 30 BCE)): the Coptic Museum (founded 1910 — the world's finest collection of Coptic Christian art, with approximately 16,000 objects documenting the art, architecture, and daily life of Egypt's Christian community from the 3rd to the 13th century), the Hanging Church (Al-Muallaqah, 'The Suspended Church' — built above the south gate of the Roman fortress of Babylon, the oldest church in Cairo, with a nave suspended over the Roman gatehouses on wooden beams, and an extraordinary interior of carved wood, ivory and ebony inlay, and ancient icons), the Church of Saint Sergius and Bacchus (Abu Serga, built on the site where the Holy Family rested during their Flight into Egypt, the oldest church in Cairo), and the Ben Ezra Synagogue (restored 19th century, on the site where Moses was supposedly found in the Nile).