Al-Muizz li-Din Allah Street

Al-Muizz Street is a one-kilometre pedestrian street in Islamic Cairo, running from Bab al-Futuh to Bab Zuweila and laid out in 969 AD. Walking it is free; the individual monuments charge separately and usually open 9 am – 5 pm.

Al-Muizz Street is often called the densest collection of medieval Islamic architecture anywhere. It was the main axis of the Fatimid capital, al-Qahira, laid out in 969 AD, and UNESCO counts it as part of "Historic Cairo". In a single kilometre you pass almost every kind of building Islamic Cairo produced: caliphs' mosques, Mamluk madrasas, sultans' mausolea, wakalas (caravanserais), sabil-kuttabs, bathhouses and merchants' homes.

Walk the car-free stretch from the northern gate, Bab al-Futuh, to the southern gate, Bab Zuweila, in the late afternoon. That is when the low sun picks out the carved stone and marble inlay, and the call to prayer comes from a dozen minarets at once. On the way you pass the al-Hakim Mosque, the Complex of Sultan Qalawun (one of the finest Mamluk groups of buildings anywhere), the Madrasa of al-Nasir Muhammad, whose Gothic doorway was taken from a Crusader church, and the Sabil-Kuttab of Abdel Rahman Katkhuda, probably the city's most photographed sabil.

What to see

• The full kilometre from Bab al-Futuh to Bab Zuweila
• The Qalawun Complex: hospital, madrasa and mausoleum (1284–1285)
• The Madrasa of Sultan Barquq and the Sabil of Abdel Rahman Katkhuda
• Bayt al-Suhaymi, an Ottoman merchant's house down a side alley
• Khan el-Khalili bazaar, one block east

Visiting

• Opening hours: monuments 9 am – 5 pm (later during Ramadan)
• Tickets: a combined al-Muizz ticket is sometimes available; otherwise you pay per monument
• Best time: late afternoon to early evening
• Nearby: Museum of Islamic Art, Khan el-Khalili