A Walk Down Al-Muizz Street, the Heart of Old Cairo

Doves circling the Mamluk minarets and domes of Al-Muizz Street

If you only have one morning in Old Cairo, spend it on Al-Muizz Street. It is about a kilometre long, and it holds more medieval Islamic architecture than almost any other street in the world. The street carries the name of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, under whom Cairo was founded in 969, and it was the main avenue of the walled city for centuries.

1. Start in the north, at Bab al-Futuh

Begin at the northern gate, Bab al-Futuh, built by the Fatimids in the eleventh century. Walk south with the walls behind you. The street narrows, the noise of the city drops, and the first minarets appear above the shops.

The two round stone towers of Bab al-Futuh, the northern gate of Fatimid Cairo
Bab al-Futuh, the Gate of Conquests, where the walk begins.
Photo: Djehouty, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2. Al-Aqmar and Bayt al-Suhaymi

Look for the small Al-Aqmar Mosque (1125), one of the few Fatimid buildings that survive almost whole. Its carved stone façade is full of shells, inscriptions and star shapes. A few steps away, in the side lane of Darb al-Asfar, is Bayt al-Suhaymi, a seventeenth-century Ottoman house of courtyards, fountains and carved wooden mashrabiya windows.

The carved stone façade of Al-Aqmar Mosque with a great shell niche and a round medallion
The façade of Al-Aqmar Mosque, carved in 1125.
Photo: R Prazeres, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The courtyard of Bayt al-Suhaymi with a tall palm tree, garden and wooden mashrabiya windows
The courtyard of Bayt al-Suhaymi, off Darb al-Asfar.
Photo: Saeed Mohammed zaman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

3. The Mamluk stretch

Further south the street opens onto the great Mamluk foundations: the complex of Sultan Qalawun (1284–1285), with its hospital, mausoleum and madrasa, and next to it the madrasa of Sultan Barquq from the late fourteenth century. Step inside Qalawun's mausoleum if it is open: the light through the coloured windows falls on carved stucco and marble inlay, and it is one of the most beautiful rooms in Cairo.

A long stone corridor with a carved wooden ceiling inside the Qalawun complex
Inside the complex of Sultan Qalawun.
Photo: Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

4. The Sabil-Kuttab of Katkhuda

Stop at the Sabil-Kuttab of Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda (1744), where the street forks. The ground floor gave free water to passers-by and the upper floor was a school for children. Its wooden balcony is one of the most photographed corners of the city.

The Sabil-Kuttab of Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda, a stone fountain house with a carved wooden balcony above
The Sabil-Kuttab of Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda, 1744.
Photo: Berthold Werner, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

5. End at Bab Zuwayla

Cross the busy Al-Azhar Street, pass the textile and spice sellers, and finish at Bab Zuwayla, the southern gate. Its two minarets belong to the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh (1415–1420). Climb them for the best view over the rooftops, domes and minarets of the Old City.

The top of a minaret of Bab Zuwayla with the rooftops of Old Cairo far below
From the minarets of Bab Zuwayla, the whole Old City lies below.
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tips

  • Go early in the morning or in the late afternoon, when the light is warm and the stone glows.
  • Khan el-Khalili is next to the street, so lunch and shopping are close by.
  • Dress modestly to enter the mosques, and keep small notes for the guardians who open locked doors.

Our Cairo Guide has this walk as a full route with timings, a Google Maps link, ticket prices and the best spots for photos. And if you fall in love with the minarets of Al-Muizz, they are on our walls too: see The Wings of Cairo and the rest of our Old Cairo photography prints.