{"id":175661,"date":"2025-12-05T00:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/175661\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:24:12","slug":"take-an-architectural-tour-of-cairo-with-salem-charabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/175661\/","title":{"rendered":"Take an architectural tour of Cairo with Salem Charabi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

My father is Egyptian and my mother is Danish; both doctors, they met in the 1990s in Copenhagen where I grew up. My\u00a0story isn\u2019t one of displacement; it\u2019s one of choice. Every school holiday, we would visit family in Egypt (my\u00a0father has six siblings). I have so many memories of driving around Downtown Cairo<\/a> with my fighter-pilot cousin, or watching my grandmother, Oufa, ironing in the hallway of her home. As I\u2019ve got older, I\u2019ve become more conscious that travelling to north Africa from Copenhagen \u2013 the most orderly and sanitised city \u2013 has made my world much bigger, and more open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe funerary complex of Sultan al-Nasir Faraj\u00a0ibn Barquq in the City of the Dead \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin<\/p>\n

I moved to Cairo full-time this summer. There\u2019s an unfathomable vastness to the city that\u2019s not just physical but present in its\u00a0layers of history<\/a> and stories. Founded in the Fatimid dynasty in 969 CE, Cairo \u2013 then known as Al-Q\u0101hirah (meaning \u201cthe Victorious\u201d) \u2013 has seen Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman eras. Like a palimpsest, its story is\u00a0being constantly rewritten. But if you lean into the chaos, it can be the most generous place. It\u2019s pointless to try to work against it\u00a0or control things. My advice is have a loose plan to get from A\u00a0to B \u2013 then leave everything else to chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Egyptian architect Malak Abdelhady made me want to relocate here. I trained as\u00a0an architect and have been building my furniture practice with limited materials and resources just outside Copenhagen since 2017. Here, there is an abundance of\u00a0craftspeople, domestic techniques and\u00a0materials that I could never have even\u00a0imagined. It is already completely transforming my work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Charabi\u00a0atCharabi\u00a0at Masjid al-Amir Qurqumas al-Sayf \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin\"TheThe Egyptian Architecture House, formerly the home of 20th-century architect Hassan Fathy \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin<\/p>\n

If you lean into the chaos, it can be the most generous place<\/p>\n

Nowhere expresses Cairo\u2019s compression of history more intensely than the City of the\u00a0Dead, a vast necropolis that dates to the\u00a07th\u00a0century. A living cemetery, graves, mosques, homes and artisan studios all exist side by\u00a0side. You can see glassblowers and blacksmiths, as well as silk-rope makers who use the length of the street to weave their wares. To the east of the Mamluk cemetery is one of the period\u2019s most significant funerary monuments \u2013 the 15th-century complex of Sultan al-Nasir Faraj ibn Barquq. It includes a\u00a0mosque and a school, and has an incredible courtyard and one of the most\u00a0beautiful rooftop views.<\/p>\n

\"CharabiCharabi at\u00a0the Egyptian Architecture House \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin\"TheThe funerary complex of Sultan al-Nasir Faraj\u00a0ibn Barquq in the City of the Dead, which includes a mosque and a school \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin\"KhaledKhaled Ali Glassblowing Workshop \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin<\/p>\n

Cairo<\/a> is a city of cars \u2013\u00a0you\u2019ll inevitably need to take a cab here \u2013 but everything is best experienced on foot. One of the few places you can move around without being boxed in by traffic is the district of Al-Darb al-Ahmar (meaning \u201cthe red path\u201d in Arabic) in Historic Cairo. You can take an official guided tour through the narrow streets. Home to more than 1,000 artisans \u2013 from tent makers to furniture makers \u2013 it\u2019s typically Cairene in that it\u2019s a place where plans can get easily derailed. You\u2019ll see an artisan carving figurines from bronze and end up spending the next three hours with them. The more I explore, the more I discover that Egyptian craftspeople work on a value system of knowledge sharing.<\/p>\n

Al-Darb al-Ahmar is also where you\u2019ll find the home of the 20th-century architect Hassan Fathy, now called the Egyptian Architecture House. It mixes Ottoman and Mamluk influences and is filled with his intricate models of Islamic architecture. Fathy transcended architecture to talk about craft, culture, engineering and politics. He\u00a0even wrote plays. He created the village of New Gourna in\u00a0Luxor using mud brick (in ancient times only funerary buildings \u2013 temples of\u00a0immortality \u2013 were built\u00a0in stone, not homes). It\u2019s worth visiting the American University in Cairo\u2019s Rare Books and Special Collections Library to see his\u00a0technical drawings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA view of the Mausoleum of Sultan Qansuh Abu Sa\u2019id, also in the City of the\u00a0Dead \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin\"At\u00a0theAt\u00a0the Egyptian Architecture House \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin\"MasjidMasjid al-Amir Qurqumas al-Sayf in the City of\u00a0the Dead \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin<\/p>\n

Egyptian craftspeople work on a value system of knowledge sharing<\/p>\n

One of Fathy\u2019s best friends and frequent collaborators was fellow architect Ramses Wissa Wassef. I\u2019m lucky to be living in a house on the compound of the Wissa Wassef Art Center in Harrania. Established in the early 1950s, it\u2019s a community of craftspeople, whose studios he built from adobe. I\u2019m in the process of setting up a small atelier here; my first project is a\u00a0series of stone chairs carved by sculptors in Luxor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Wassef workshops and exhibition spaces are open to visitors, and are also close to the wonderful Adam Henein Museum. It has a verdant palm-dotted garden filled with the modernist sculptor\u2019s figures and animalistic forms, including a\u00a0monumental Noah\u2019s Ark. For me, it\u2019s Cairo\u2019s answer to The Noguchi Museum.<\/p>\n

\"GlassGlass globes hanging in Khaled Ali Glassblowing Workshop \u00a9 Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin<\/p>\n

Further afield, you can drive around 80 miles south-west of Cairo to the Fayoum Oasis<\/a>, where a community of potters, weavers and basket makers live among the dunes and lakes. Pigeon is a culinary delicacy here, so there are farms all over Egypt. The towers they roost in, which you\u2019ll see across the city, are one of my favourite expressions of Egyptian architecture. Whether lashed to the tops of urban buildings or formed from ceramic pots, they speak to the power of architecture and the lengths to which people go to support living.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

My favourite place on the planet is the Mosque of Ahmad ibn T\u016bl\u016bn, one of the oldest complete examples in Africa. Built from red brick in 87AD, it is a masterpiece in the study of space. Its tulip-shaped minaret is so monumental and yet so pared-down. When I first visited a decade ago, what struck me was how out of time this ancient structure felt. If you climb to the rooftop and catch the call to prayer, it\u2019s exceptional. In pictures it looks isolated, but\u00a0in fact it has all kinds of architecture pressing up against it \u2013 and that\u2019s the beauty of Cairo. \u00a0<\/p>\n

BARS, CAF\u00c9S & RESTAURANTS\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foul Zaman Abou Youssef
4 Al Shawarbi, Bab Al Louq, Abdeen, 4280150<\/p>\n

Tasha Restaurant 39 El Sayeda Zeinab, 11617<\/p>\n

THINGS TO DO<\/p>\n

Adam Henein Museum adamheneinmuseum.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Al-Darb al-Ahmar tour aldarbalahmar.com\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The American University in Cairo\u2019s Rare Books and Special Collections Library\u00a0library.aucegypt.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

Egyptian Architecture House egyptarch.gov.eg<\/a><\/p>\n

The Khanqah of Sultan al-Nasir Faraj ibn Barquq El-Gamaleya, Manshiyat Naser, 4420510<\/p>\n

Mosque of Ahmad ibn T\u016bl\u016bn\u00a0 Ahmed ibn Tolon Sq, Tolon, El\u00a0Sayeda Zeinab, 4261342<\/p>\n

Wissa Wassef Art Center wissawassef.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-175661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}