The Fatimid courtyard
The original heart of the mosque and its oldest part.
Daniel Mayer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ahmed Hassan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ismaiel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · R Prazeres — CC BY-SA 4.0
The oldest working university in the world and one of the oldest mosques in Egypt — standing and in continuous use since the year 972. The Fatimids built it when they founded Cairo; after their fall it became the foremost centre of Sunni learning in the Islamic world, a historical irony every Egyptian knows: the mosque built by Shia rulers became the pulpit of Sunni orthodoxy. What a visitor sees today is a thousand years of additions stacked on one another. The open courtyard with its arcades is Fatimid at its core, and around it stand minarets from different centuries — each sultan his own — with Mamluk and Ottoman gateways added by anyone who wanted to leave a mark. There is no architectural unity here, and the history is precisely what is read in the difference. Students from every Muslim country still study inside, and the teaching circles in the arcades are not a display for visitors but what happens here daily. Entry is free and it is a working mosque before it is a monument, so prayer times are respected and quiet is kept around the circles. It faces Khan el-Khalili directly across the street, and the two are visited together.
The original heart of the mosque and its oldest part.
Each sultan added his own, and the differences are where the history is read.
Students from every Muslim country studying in the arcades, as they have for a thousand years.
Al-Azhar Street, Al-Hussein, Cairo
Al-Hussein MosqueOne of the holiest and best-loved mosques in Egypt, on al-Hussein Square at the 2 minutes walk4.9
Khan el-KhaliliCairo's great bazaar since the fourteenth century, and still a working market ra2 minutes walk4.3
Wikala of al-GhuriA Mamluk merchants' inn built by Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri in 1504 and 1505, counte3 minutes walk4.8
Al-Ghuri ComplexA Mamluk complex built by Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri, the second-to-last Mamluk sult3 minutes walk4.6
Qalawun ComplexA huge Mamluk complex in the heart of al-Muizz Street, built by Sultan al-Mansur5 minutes walk4.6Yes, outside prayer times, on the usual mosque conditions. Teaching circles may be in session while you are there; walk quietly past and do not photograph faces up close.
Al-Azhar is a teaching mosque and a centre of religious authority. The Hussein Mosque is minutes away and is a place of devotional visitation for many Egyptians because of what is believed to lie within it; it is far more crowded and much more popular in character. The two and Khan el-Khalili form one walkable triangle.