Islamic Cairo (Fieldtrip Edition)

On Saturday, I had a field trip with my architecture class- Jessica and I had agreed that she would do the talking with the cab driver. We made it on time! The field trip was scheduled to go to Islamic Cairo and look at Bab al-Futuh, Bab al-Nasr (not named after the Egyptian leader), and the Mosque of al-Hakim. Yes, exactly what a few friends and I stumbled upon while wandering around a few weeks ago. At least I would have someone explaining what everything is!

The pictures I am going to put up or going to be of things that I learned about- there are more pictures of these structures a couple of posts ago..

This is Bab al-Nasr (Bab can mean either door or gate and Nasr means Victory- Gate of Victory):

..a few weeks ago, this was the first structure that came into sight- I believe I described it like a castle/fortress.

This gate is very simply decorated- it has military shields on it that resembles the shields of the rival empires/armies, like the Byzantines.

Now onto Bab al-Futuh (Gate of Conquest):
This gate has many more decorations on it:
..there is a ram's head on the first support-thing (have not yet learned the term) from the right. Cairo in Arabic is pronounced al-Qahira. Al-Qahira was the final city built of the four that make up what is today Cairo (I touched on this in the Coptic Cairo post). It was named after the planet Mars (Qahir in Arabic) which was the most dominant sign in the sky at the time of construction. When all of the cities were combined, it took the name al-Qahira. Rams represent Mars (that is where I was going with all of that!).

There are many more examples of the decorations in the other post..

Oh my! Is that a pendentive!? Why yes, yes it is:

Pendentives (the part that comes to a tringle in the picture) are one of the ways that square-shaped structures can support domes or other special designs. This is under the Bab al-Futuh.

Last time I went to the mosque of al-Hakim, one of the afternoon prayers were going on so I did not get to see the mihrab. I got to see it this time:
..I know what you are wondering right now, what kind of structure is that holding up the dome over the mihrab? Those are certainly not pendentives!
You are right, those are not pendentives. They are squinches- the other option for angular buildings to support domes without sacrificing looks. The idea behind squinches is to round the corners so the circuluar-dome is able to be supported by the square building (imagine putting a circle on top of a square, this provides more support)

This staircase-like structure is called a 'minbar'. They are quite common in mosques. They act as a pulpit where the Imam (the leader of the prayer) delivers sermons.
If you have not noticed, mosques tend to have high ceilings. How do they keep it so clean?

and

An interesting fact about the Mosque of al-Hakim is that upon completion, the minarets were ordered by the ruler, al-Hakim, to be covered up. No reason was given- al-Hakim was quite an eccentric person. He wanted to ban women from wearing shoes so they would not be able to leave the home. He also just kind of disappeared- nobody knows for certain what happened to him. Last time I was in the mosque, I did not know we could go up in the minarets- I did it this time!

When you enter the base of the minaret, you actually walk into the space between the minaret and the cover that was built around it:

The stairs leading to the top of the minaret are similar to the stairs in a lighthouse (a long spiral). They are actually similar structures now that I think about it.. The view from the top was incredible! You could see all of Islamic Cairo which meant a lot domes and minarets!

You can see the Citadel of Salah ad-Din (Saladin) in the background. When Saladin built this after taking the area from the Fatimids, he ordered that a wall be built combining al-Fustat and al-Qahira so that it can be defended easier. The Citadel the center of Egypt's government activity up until the late 19th century. I am pretty sure I have a field trip that goes to it in May.. It is the rising domed structure to the right.

In this picture, you can see the other minaret of the mosque. Notice how it is a sqaure structure with a circular part on top. The square part is the cover that al-Hakim had built. More Cairo!

The top of the minaret- this is not the original, though.
This was taken from the walls of the mosque/Bab al-Futuh. You can get another view of the cover that was built around the minaret.

This is the shoe rack in al-Hakim. I found this funny because it reminded me of an old job I had at a family fun center (mini-golf, go-karts kind of place). There was a kidsgym (a 'playplace', if you will- it had a ballpit) and kids had to take their shoes off to go in. We had a shoe rack similar to this for their shoes (it was plastic and more colorful). There has been a shoe rack at all of the mosques I have been to (just 2 now that I think about it) and they have had a shoe-rack attendant. I have equated this job to my old job making sure kids take off their shoes before they go in the kidsgym. "Hey, gotta take your shoes off before you go to the ballpit.. Hey, gotta take your shoes off before you go to the pulpit". Although, I am sure he finds his job much more rewarding than I did.
After we left al-Hakim, we still had some time until we needed to be back. Our teacher took us down the street to the Mosque of al-Aqmar. It was the first mosque to be built to the street plan of Cairo, rather than being a perfect sqaure.

It was also the first mosque to have a fully decorated facade (it has be restored):

View into the doorwayWe could not go inside because a prayer was starting. Being in Islamic Cairo for the call to prayer was a really interesting experience. The minarets of the mosques are used to broadcast the call to prayer (A church tower and bells might be a proper comparison). In Islamic Cairo, there are so many mosques and so many minarets that one mosque might have a call to prayer that is spoken faster than the others. It was kind of a mess to listen to, but I really enjoyed hearing them all be out of sync with eachother.

After the field trip, Jessica and I went to Pizza Hut (Bitza Hut in Arabic). I felt very American, but it was delicious. I think it may have been cheaper than in America, too (usually the American fast food places are the same price in Egypt as they would be in America). It will now be a post-fieldtrip tradition.