Background

Al-Muizz Li-Deenilla al-Fatimi Street is the world’s largest open museum of Islamic monuments. It crosses Fatimid Cairo through al-Azhar Square.

The street was named after the Fatimid Caliph, who sent his Commander Jawhar al-Siqqily to conquer Egypt in AD 969 (Hijri 358). North stands the forbidding Bab al-Nasser– or gate of victory. To the south lies another gate, Bab al-Wazir, to the east al-Darrasah Street and the remains of the Cairo Wall and to the west Port Said Street.

Al-Muizz Li-Deenilla al-Fatimi Street presently houses some 100 thousand and plays host to hundreds of visitors who come sight-seeing every day.

The area was witness to numerous eras: the Umayyad, the Circassian and Bahri Mameluke, and the Ottoman eras.

Sites to visit include not only mosques but also mausoleums, hospitals, palaces, mansions, sabeels (caravansaries), and kuttabs (schools for reciting the Quran).