Cairo mosque restored in bid to boost tourism
650-year-old monument took three years and $1.4m to renovate
Cairo: Developers unveiled the restoration of a 650-year-old mosque in Cairo's old city, part of an effort to revitalise the impoverished district and boost tourism to the country's treasure trove of Islamic sites.
The three-year, $1.4 million (Dh5.1 million) project restored the Aslam Al Silahdar Mosque, built in 1344-1345 by Aslam Al Bahai, a nobleman who rose to the position of a ‘swordbearer' for Sultan Al Nasir Mohammad, one of the most powerful of Egypt's Mamluk rulers.
It is tucked into Cairo's Al Darb Al Ahmar district, a dense warren of narrow, dusty alleyways.
Many of its 92,000 inhabitants are among the poorest in Egypt, living on less than $1 a day, according to the Canadian Development Agency, which works in the community.
The neighbourhood is also packed with antiquities — an Islamic monument about every 20 metres, ranging from Cairo's early days in the 11th century to more modern times.
The area is "comparable to Rome" in terms of monuments, said Luis Monreal, the general manager of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network, which directed the renovation of the Aslam Mosque.
A handful of American donors contributed to the conservation efforts, including the American Research Centre in Egypt with a grant from USAID, and the US Ambassador Fund.
The Aslam Mosque was redone from floor to ceiling. Hanging lamps illuminate Islamic-style archways and smooth stone floors. On the exterior, elegant green and black Arabic calligraphy scrolls around the base of the mosque's prominent dome. A square adjoining the mosque was also renovated.
Many of the mosques, mausoleums and Islamic schools in the district are dilapidated and crumbling after decades of neglect. Until recently, the Egyptian government also did little to encourage tourism to the area, and most foreign visitors ignored the rich area in favour of pharaonic sites.
Dina Bakhoum, conservation programmes manager for AKTC's Egypt branch, said Al Darb Al Ahmar has "great potential to become one of Cairo's major attractions."
92,000 inhabitants live in Al Darb Al Ahmar area
$1is what poor residents of Cairo district live on
20 metres is the distance between monuments
