Islamic Art, Cairo the capital

Islamic Art chose the old city of Cairo as its capital. As Cairo was one of the main cities in Islamic history, and at the same time the destination of the most profiled artists of that time, it was bound to become the next cultural centre of the world, starting with "El Fustat Mosque" which was the first Mosque not in Cairo alone but the first to be built outside of Arabia. Now known as "Amr Bin El As Mosque Picture below taken by me" it still stands as a witness of the elegance of Islamic Architecture and art.


Islamic Art is considered the art produced by people not necessarily Muslim that lived in Islamic territories in the 7th century onwards, these artists were famous for masterpieces in the fields of architecture, calligraphy, painting, and ceramics, among others.

As is well known Islamic art is not a religious art but better known as the art of the people who committed to the rich and varied Islamic culture as well. Islamic Art is developed from many sources: Roman, Early Christian, and Byzantine styles were taken over in early Islamic architecture; the influence of Sassanian art—the architecture and decorative art of pre-Islamic Persia was of paramount significance; Central Asian styles were brought in with various nomadic incursions; and Chinese influences had an important effect on Islamic painting, pottery, and textiles.

My Extraordinary Cairo Trip

Two years ago I was finishing my graduation project in the Academy of art in Cairo, the Graphics & Advertising department, my Idea was a campaign called "Different Eras & One Cairo" meaning that Cairo has lived through a lot of historic periods, holding in its folds monuments and treasures other then the Pyramids and Sphinx, such as the Coptic, Islamic, Roman, Greek, Mamluk, Arab, and modern eras and much more.

So one day I decided to take a walk along with my camera in Cairo, I was intending for three hours of photography, but it turned out a much longer adventure, for nine hours I kept walking and photographing until I just couldn't stand on my feet any more, sad that I had to go home but happy with my photos, my journey for that day was over.

The path I took was a long one, I'll explain it here if you would like to try it yourself.

I started out taking the subway to "Mar Girgis" station, where my first scene was "The Virgin's Church" then I passed by "The Roman Tower of Babylon" then the famous "Mar Girgis Church" known as St. George Church, I then entered the "Coptic museum" where I had a free pass.

I then walked down Mar Girgis st. down to the famous "Seven Churches Alley" which is a splendid site, it is a narrow alley with seven churches and a Jewish temple, all with extraordinary architecture, after a few arguments with the guards there and showing them my collage ID which gives me access to many historic places they allowed me to photograph there as they say only foreigners are allowed to photograph there.

After that I moved on a little bit more down Mar Girgis st. to "Amr Ibn El-As Mosque" which is the first mosque to be built in Cairo 14 hundred years ago.

Then I took a long walk towards "Magra Al-Eyoon Wall" Which was built hundreds of years ago for many reasons one is to protect cairo and the other was to supply the Citadel with water from the Nile River.

After walking the whole length of the amazing wall I reached The "Citadel" which was built by Salah El Din in order to protect Cairo from Invaders and it still stands as one of the most treasure holding buildings in Cairo.

Then I moved on to the famous mosques of "El sultan Hassan and El Refaie Mosques" with the very tall minarets (a splendid site to see), Then it was time for me to go visit The Azhar Gardens where you can see the entire view of Cairo from.

Then I went down to The famous "Azhar Mosque" and "AL Hussain Mosque" then I walked through "Khan El Khalily Alley" which is full of great architecture arts, then I took a look at the "Complex of Qalaun" which was still being renovated at the time, I really did sneak in because it was not allowed to enter it yet.

Later I saw the extraordinary street called "El Darb El Asfar" or the Yellow Alley, which is full of Houses of famous Arab merchants that lived there hundreds of years ago, full of art and ornaments, what really dazzled me was the art of Arabesque which is a wooden plate on the windows that is cut through in very small and delicate holes for the light.

Then I moved on to another famous wall that was built to protect Cairo with the enormous gates of "El Nasr and El Futooh" after that with almost 200 images on my memory card I was ready to call it a day.

If you are willing to take that trip someday contact me, and I would be willing to give you all the info you might happen to need and a map also :)

Cairo the capital of culture

Cairo is not only the capital of Egypt but also the capital of Islamic art, Coptic art, and pharaonic art Cairo is an extraordinary city holding in it's folds all eras of arts and culture.
You can always visit places like the pyramids, Egyptian museum, Islamic museum, Coptic museum, the Cairo opera house, and the museum of modern arts, and a lot more.

Egypt the land of wondors

Egypt "land of the nile" is well known for it's beauty and elegance, as the country known to hold two of the seven old wondors of the world "the pyramids & the alexandria light house" Egypt has alot to talk about in terms of history, culture and myths.
Egypt geographically is the connection between europe, africa and asia, historically Egypt is a connection between the far eastern culture and the modern west.