City of the Dead (Cairo)

View of the northern necropolis from the roof of the mosque Sultan grave Qaitbays (in the background include the domes and minarets of the grave complexes Sultan Barsbays and Sultan Faradschs to recognize)

As a city of the dead two broad inhabited by about 300,000 people cemetery districts on the eastern edge of Cairo called. What the locals usually just call al-Qarafa ( Arabic القرافة), ie "the cemetery", called the area at the foot of the Mokattam Mountains extends for several kilometers both north (northern city of the dead) and south (southern city of the dead) of the citadel and became an informal settlement ( slum ) when in the 20th In the 19th century, more and more people (looking for work) streamed into the Egyptian capital and, due to the acute lack of space, partly also settled the historic cemetery area, which in the Middle Ages was still outside Cairo in the desert.

Today, Qarafa, which is criss-crossed by a dense network of paths and roads, contains not only simple tombs and residential buildings, but also a large number of historically highly significant buildings from almost all epochs of Islamic history in Egypt. The most important of these worth seeing monuments can be found in the following lists.

The Ahmad Hasanain Pascha mausoleum, built in 1946 in the northern city of the dead (located directly on Salah Salim Street across from Maschyachat al-Azhar )

Alley in the southern city of the dead

Eduard Spelterini captured the city of the dead from a balloon in 1904 , with the Salah El Din Al Ayouby citadel in the background, looking south

The city of the dead with the northern (necropolis of Qaitbay) and southern necropolis (necropolis of Saiyida-Nafisa and Imam asch-Schafii) has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 as part of "Historic Cairo" .

Northern Necropolis

The so-called northern city of the dead, in which the mausoleums of five sultans can be found, is located northeast of the citadel between Salah-Salim-Strasse (شارع صلاح سالم) and An-Nasr-Straße (طريق النصر).

monument	Year of construction or time	Epoch (dynasty)
Grave of the emir Tash-Temur	1334	Bahri Mamluken
Tomb of Princess Tughay (Umm Anuk)	before 1348	Bahri Mamluken
Grave of the princess Tul (u) bay	1363/64	Bahri Mamluken
Tomb complex of the Sultan Faraj ibn Barquq	1400-1411	Burji Mamluks
Grave of the Emir Guzal	1403	Burji Mamluks
Grave of the Emir Jani-Beg	1427	Burji Mamluks
Grave complex of the Sultan Barsbay	1432	Burji Mamluks
Tomb of (Sultan Barsbay's mother) Khadijah Umm al-Ashraf	approx. 1430-1440	Burji Mamluks
Tomb of Emir Nasrallah (Kuz al-Asal)	1441	Burji Mamluks
Tomb of the Sufi Sheikh ar-Rifai	Mid 15th century	Burji Mamluks
Tomb complex of the Sultan Inal	1451-1456	Burji Mamluks
Grave of the emir Barsbay al-Badschasi	1456	Burji Mamluks
Sultan Qaitbay's tomb complex	1472-1474	Burji Mamluks
Tomb of Sultan Qansuh I.	1499	Burji Mamluks
Tomb of the Emir Azrumuk	1503	Burji Mamluks
Burial Complex of the Emir Qurqumas	1506/07	Burji Mamluks
Tomb of the Emir Qurqumas	1511	Burji Mamluks
Tomb of the Emir Sulayman	1544	Ottoman rule
Tomb complex of the Sufi Sheikh Sidi al-Afifi and the Chedive Muhammad Taufiq Pasha	1894	Muhammad Ali dynasty

Inner courtyard and one of the two domes of the Faraj ibn Barquq Mausoleum
Dome of the burial mosque of Sultan Qaitbays
Tomb of Sultan Qansuh I.
Burial Complex of the Emir Qurqumas
Sultan Qaitbay's funerary mosque based on a painting by David Roberts
The mausoleums of Emir Qurqumas (left), Sultan Inal (center) and Sultan Qansuh I (right) on a painting by David Roberts

Southern city of the dead

The so-called southern city of the dead, which is even larger than the northern one, is located in the south of the citadel, east of the Ibn Tulun mosque . It extends to the Maadi district and can be roughly divided into the area between Saliba Street (شارع الصليبة) and Saiyida Nafisa Square (ميدان السيدة نفيسة), a central district (directly south of the citadel) and the so-called small Qarafa (located even further south).

monument	Year of construction or time	Epoch (dynasty)
Cenotaph of Khadija	around 959	Ichididen
al-Luʾluʾa Mosque ("Pearl Mosque")	1016	Fatimids
al-Juyushi mosque (shrine of the vizier and emir Badr al-Jamali )	1085	Fatimids
Tomb of Saiyida Atika (allegedly an aunt of Prophet Muhammad )	1122	Fatimids
Tomb of Muhammad al-Jafari (son of the 6th Imam Jafar as-Sadiq )	1122	Fatimids
Tomb of Umm Kulthum (great-granddaughter of the 6th Imam Jafar as-Sadiq)	1122	Fatimids
Ichwat-Yusuf-Mausoleum ("Mausoleum of Joseph's Brothers")	1125-1150	Fatimids
Tomb of Saiyida Ruqaiya (daughter of the 4th caliph Ali )	1133	Fatimids
Shrine ( Mashhad ) of Yahya ash-Shabihi	1150	Fatimids
Tomb of al-Hasawati	circa 1150	Fatimids
Mausoleum of the legal scholar Ash-Shafii	1211	Aiyubids
Gate and Ivan of the Emir Ismail ibn Thalab	1216	Aiyubids
Mausoleum of the Abbasid Caliphs (including the graves of the ambassador Abu Nadla and two sons of Sultan Baybars )	1242	Aiyubids
Grave of the Sultana Shajar (at) ad-Durr	1250	Aiyubids
Mausoleum of Fatima-Chatun (Umm as-Salih, a wife of Sultan Qalawun )	1283/84	Bahri Mamluken
Tomb of as-Sawabi	1286	Bahri Mamluken
Mausoleum of the Sultan Chalil	1288	Bahri Mamluken
Zawiya and Mausoleum of Upper Qadis Zain ad-Din Yusuf	1298	Bahri Mamluken
Tomb of Badr ad-Din Ali al-Qarafi	1300	Bahri Mamluken
Tomb of Princess Urdutakin (Turbat as-Sitt)	circa 1315	Bahri Mamluken
Emir Qausun's Mausoleum Chanqa Complex	1335	Bahri Mamluken
Mausoleum-Chanqa complex of the "Sultaniya" (probably referring to the mother of Sultan Hasan )	circa 1350	Bahri Mamluken
Tomb of the Emir Tankiz-Bugha	1359	Bahri Mamluken
Mosque of the emir Chushqadam al-Ahmadi (previously the reception hall ( Qaa ) of the emir Tash-Temur al-Alai)	1366-1377 et al. 1480-1489	Bahri- u. Burji Mamluks
Tomb complex of the Sufi sheikh Umar ibn al-Farid	circa 1460	Burji Mamluks
Mausoleum of Abdullah ad-Dakruri	1466	Burji Mamluks
Grave of the Emir Sudun	circa 1505	Burji Mamluks
Radwan Bey's tomb	1686	Ottoman rule
Grave and Sabil-Kuttab (public drinking water fountain and Koran school) of Radwan Bey ar-Razzaz	1754	Ottoman rule
Mosque of Saiyida Aisha (daughter of the 6th Imam Jafar as-Sadiq)	1762 (new building 1895)	Ottoman rule
Tomb of Uthman Bey Qazdaghli	1766	Ottoman rule
Graves of Ali Bey al-Kabir and Ismail Bey al-Kabir	1773	Ottoman rule
Grave of the polyhistor Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti	1796	Ottoman rule
Hosch al-Bascha (tomb complex of the Muhammad Alis family )	1854	Muhammad Ali dynasty
Saiyida Nafisa Mosque	1897	Muhammad Ali dynasty

Al-Ashraf Khalil mausoleum
Hosh al-Basha (from outside)
Hosch al-Bascha (from inside)
Saiyida Ruqaiya Mausoleum (dome)
Saiyida Ruqaiya Mausoleum (shrine inside)
Saiyida Ruqaiya Mausoleum ( Mihrab )

literature

Caroline Williams: Islamic Monuments in Cairo - The Practical Guide. 6th edition. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2008, ISBN 978-977-416-205-3 .
Salah Ahmed El-Banasi: Mamluk Art - Splendor And Magic During The Reign Of The Sultans. Museum With No Frontiers, 2001, ISBN 1-874044-37-6 .
Doris Behrens Abouseif: The Minarets of Cairo. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 1985, ISBN 977-424-035-9 .
Doris Behrens Abouseif: Islamic Architecture in Cairo. Brill, Leiden 1989, ISBN 90-04-08677-3 .
Hani Hamza: The Northern Cemetery of Cairo. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2001, ISBN 977-424-618-7 .