Islamic Cairo
Walled medieval quarter of soaring minarets, ancient gates and a dense maze of mosques and bazaars.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Islamic Cairo centers on Bab Zuweila, the old southern gate, and the fifteenth of April 1517, when the last Mamluk sultan, Tuman Bay the second, was hanged from its arch after Egypt fell to the invading Ottomans. It follows his last stand against Selim's army, a betrayal by a Bedouin chief he had once spared, and the defiant words that nearly won him mercy anyway. Along the way it traces the gate itself back to the Fatimid vizier who built it, and the grimmer purpose its walls served long before that April morning.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Bab Zuwayla
Fortified medieval city gate topped by twin minarets, once a stage for public executions.
Bab El Nasr
Fortified medieval city gate with twin stone towers, carved shields and centuries of graffiti from its conquerors.
Bab al-Futuh
Twin round towers in a Fatimid city wall, hiding floor shafts for pouring boiling oil on attackers.
Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah Al-Fatimi Street
Historic corridor lined with mosques, madrasas and mausoleums spanning a thousand years of rule.
Saladin Citadel
Medieval hilltop fortress built to fend off Crusaders, later the stage for a ruler's bloody ambush of Mamluk commanders.
Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan
Vast Mamluk mausoleum-mosque with a soaring stone portal and four teaching halls off a sunlit court.