Historic Cairo

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Historic Cairo
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Islamic-cairo-street.jpg
Street in the old city of Cairo
National territory: EgyptEgypt Egypt
Type: Culture
Criteria : (i) (iv) (vi)
Surface: 523.66 ha
Reference No .: 89
UNESCO region : Arabic states
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1979  ( session 3 )

The Historic Cairo , also known as Islamic Cairo ( Arab قاهرة المعز, Qahirat al-Maez ), is the historic city center of modern Cairo and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . It was placed under protection in 1979 as one of the oldest Islamic cities in the world, with famous mosques , madrasas , hammams and fountains. This should not only acknowledge Cairo's importance as an Islamic metropolis, but also its exemplary character for urban life in general. Founded in the 10th century, historic Cairo reached its heyday in the 14th century.

Cairo as the epitome of an "Islamic city"

The term medieval, Islamic Cairo was coined at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867 . A few decades before Egypt came under British rule, art historians, architects, town planners, preservationists, writers and travelers came together to create this image of the medieval city, focusing on the Fatimid Cairo (within the city walls) and its extension covered under the Mamluken . It was in the form of photographs, paintings, travel reports, but also building work, a product of orientalism , carried by Europeans and local elites who had one thing in common: they did not live in this old town.

Historic old town and core areas of the world heritage

The city of Cairo, located between a tributary of the Nile in the west and Mount Mukattam in the east, could for a long time only be expanded to the north and south, so that the historical development is an elongated strip between the two north-south running streets of Port Said Street and Salah Salim Highway is located. In the 1990s, concern about the Coptic Quarter and the excavations in Fustat grew , so that this region in the south was included in the world heritage.

In the meantime, three core zones of the world heritage site have been proposed; the surrounding urban area should be considered a buffer zone:

  • In the northwest there is a core zone between the Nile bridge “15. Mai ”and Shanan Street in the As-Sabtiyyah district.
  • In the southwest there is another, relatively small area on both sides of the Qasr al-Nil Bridge. It includes the southern tip of the Nile island of Roda ( Nilometer ) and on the other side of the Fustat bridge and the Coptic Quarter.
  • The third core zone is considerably larger; it is located further east in the districts of Bab ash-Shariyah, El-Hosayneyah, Al Muski, El-Gamaleyah, Bab al-Khalq, Abdeen, El-Sayeda Zeinab, El-Khalifa, El-Imam El -Shafey - so the area enclosed by the city wall and other quarters below the citadel and the Mukattam mountain. This also includes the northern and southern city ​​of the dead .

Historic city fortifications

Much of the medieval city wall has been preserved to this day, especially in the north (city gates Bab al-Futuḥ and Bab an-Naṣr ). In the south, parts of the wall remained with the Bab Zuweila gate .

The Mamluk general Badr al-Ğamālī commissioned three Christian-Syrian architects from Urfa to build the wall in 1073 , one of whom, John the Monk, is known by name. The execution of the gates was also her job. Many ancient Egyptian temples had to serve as a quarry for the construction of the city wall, so that pharaonic inscriptions and decorations can be seen on their stones.

The special features of the city walls of al-Ğamālī are the high quality stonework and the variety of vaults used in the walls and gates. Only round arches were used in the entire city fortifications.

Neighborhoods ( hawari )

Historical photography: the Chan el-Khalili (1875)

The old town of Cairo is considered the world's largest medieval city, where traditional ways of life are still part of everyday life.

The phenomenon of the hawari (singular harah ) has repeatedly attracted the interest of researchers. It is used to describe a group of interconnected houses that share a courtyard or a dead end street as a common public space. At the same time, however, the rules of Sharia law on privacy and gender segregation had to be followed when designing the houses. Each extended family lived in their own house ( bayt ). Access to the courtyard was via winding back streets and passageways. The size of the houses could vary; craft businesses and the like could also be located here. The families spent part of their everyday life in the common room. The neighborhood was also seen as a social group that was linked, for example, by profession or religion. The neighborhood was also a protective community; the courtyard was only available to local residents and outsiders had to ask for permission before entering.

Architectural features of medieval hawari are stone walls with raised windows on the ground floor and projections of the upper floor by about one meter into the courtyard. The traditional Cairene houses had (and still have) large openings to the outside, but these were always placed as high as possible - as a 19th century observer noted, higher than a rider on a horse could see. That is why there were often decorated mashraibyyat and wooden malqafs ( wind towers ) on the houses . Because of the fire hazard, the maximum height of the houses was limited to three or four floors.

Changes in the cityscape in the 19th century

Al Khudayri Street in Cairo (Alberto Pasini, 1861)

The architects of the 19th century intervened deeply in the structure of the old town. Modern streets, lined with new buildings, were cut as aisles through the historic quarters. However, the connection that medieval and modern development made is interesting and also different from the process that other cities in the Middle East went through. While modern and historical buildings can be found in separate city quarters in Damascus and Aleppo, the historical buildings in Baghdad and Beirut have been given a very modern look.

The old town of Cairo in the 20th / 21st century

After Egypt gained independence, many foreigners left Cairo and the wealthier families moved from the medieval neighborhoods to the lower city. In recent years, institutions such as the American University in Cairo have also left the city center to move to new locations in the desert (New Cairo). Most of the Egyptian Museum is moving to a new location at the Giza Pyramids , and the Exodus continues. If you add the ring of slum-like quarters that surrounds the old town, a worst-case scenario becomes possible: a poor and neglected historic city center and gated communities of the wealthy far outside the city.

Location of important buildings of historical Cairo

World heritage since 1979

When historic Cairo was placed under protection in 1979, the precise boundaries of the world cultural heritage were neglected. In the thirty years that followed, no concrete measures were taken to preserve the old town. After the World Heritage Committee had addressed the need for action several times, the Urban Regeneration for Historic Cairo (URHC) project was launched in 2009 with the aim of protecting the world heritage site, its socio-economic revitalization and the improvement of its environmental situation. Because the preservation of the historical architecture can only be ensured in the long term if the quality of life of the residents can be improved. To this end, the following measures are carried out in connection with local actors:

  • Clear definition of the area of ​​the world heritage site with the surrounding buffer zone;
  • Development of a management plan in cooperation with the local authorities;
  • Establishment of a platform for the exchange of information on protective measures;
  • Public relation.

The 2011 revolution drew the Egyptian public's attention to the state of the historic city center as it was the scene of demonstrations. After the state crisis in 2013/2014 , the al-Sisi government invested in the restoration of some places; this included the facades of the surrounding old buildings from the end of the 19th century. "But the situation is still devastating, with the daily collapse of road traffic, a historical building fabric that has been neglected for decades, especially in the less central squares, streets and neighborhoods of the city, where there are thousands of abandoned apartments and empty buildings." Concrete measures , which were initiated by URHC and were implemented by 2015, promote art, culture, handicraft and microeconomics of the residents of the old town.

Web links

Commons : Islamic Cairo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Historic Cairo on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).

literature

  • Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem: The Architecture of Home in Cairo: Socio-Spatial Practice of the Hawari's Everyday Life . Ashgate Publishing, 2015.
  • Doris Behrens-Abouseif: Islamic Architecture in Cairo: An Introduction. Brill, Leiden / Boston / Cologne 1989. ISBN 90-04-08677-3 .
  • Ahmed Sedky: Living with Heritage in Cairo: Area Conservation in the Arab-Islamic City . The American University in Cairo Press, 2008.
  • Christoph Wessling: Revitalization of Old Cair o. In: Hebatalla Abouelfadl, Dalila ElKerdany, Christoph Wessling (Eds.): Revitalizing City Districts: Transformation Partnership for Urban Design and Architecture in Historic City Districts . Springer, Cham, 2017. ISBN 978-3-319-46289-9 . Pp. 63-74.

Coordinates: 30 ° 2 ′ 45.3 "  N , 31 ° 15 ′ 45"  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Urban Regeneration for Historic Cairo. In: UNESCO World Heritage Center. Retrieved June 5, 2018 .
  2. ^ Historic Cairo. In: UNESCO World Heritage Center. Retrieved June 5, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Nezar AlSayyad, Irene A. Bierman, Nasser Rabbat: Making Cairo Medieval . Lexington Books, Oxford 2005, ISBN 978-0-7391-0915-1 , pp. 2-3 .
  4. ↑ a b Ahmed Sedky: Living with Heritage in Cairo . 2008, p. 4 .
  5. ^ Urban Regeneration project for Historic Cairo. Second report of the activities, July 2012-November 2014. In: UNESCO World Heritage Center. P. 14 , accessed June 5, 2018 .
  6. ^ Peter Grossmann: Christian architecture in Egypt . Brill, Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2002, ISBN 90-04-12128-5 .
  7. ^ A b Doris Behrens-Abouseif: Islamic Architecture in Cairo . 1989, p. 68 .
  8. ↑ Ahmed Sedky: Living with Heritage in Cairo . 2008, p. xvii .
  9. ^ Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem: The Architecture of Home in Cairo . 2015, p. 7 .
  10. ^ Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem: The Architecture of Home in Cairo . 2015, p. 120 .
  11. ^ Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem: The Architecture of Home in Cairo . 2015, p. 128 .
  12. ^ Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem: The Architecture of Home in Cairo . 2015, p. 126 .
  13. ↑ a b Christoph Wessling: Revitalizing of Old Cairo . 2017, p. 65 .
  14. ^ Christoph Wessling: Revitalizing of Old Cairo . 2017, p. 63 .
  15. ^ Christoph Wesseling: Revitalizing of Old Cairo . 2017, p. 64 .
  16. ^ Christoph Wessling: Revitalizing of Old Cairo . 2017, p. 69 .