CAIRO, 17 April — The first conference of Islamic Tourism Ministers that was held in Isfahan, Iran on Oct. 5, 2000 highlighted the importance of the preservation of historic Islamic sites.
Egypt along with Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman are all embarking on major new strategies and development initiatives. Egypt especially is focusing on its Islamic heritage. “Fifteen years ago nobody was interested in Old Cairo.
Our heritage was forgotten. Old Cairo hasn’t the international fame of the pyramids; nevertheless, Cairo possesses unexploited treasures which are threatened by traffic, sewage, pollution and groundwater,” says Nairi Hampikian currently in charge of the restoration of Bab Zuwayla.
Five years ago, the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny, created a special commission whose main task was to focus on Old Cairo: “We have prepared a very clear vision of the old Fatimid city. Old Cairo is full of monuments, mosques as well as Islamic places. We performed a thorough survey and diagnosed the situation of the area to find a solution.”
As a result, two tunnels, each 2, 6 kilometers long were built to eliminate traffic congestion in the old Fatimid City. These tunnels are currently the longest city tunnels in the world. Important monuments in the area are also being renovated. The restoration of Bab Zuwayla funded by USAID and monitored by the American Research Center in Egypt Antiquities has been underway for three years.
Old Cairo started from the South, extended to Bab Zuwayla and continued in a northeastern direction. Bab Zuwayla is one of the doors built in 1092 by the Fatimid when they left North Africa to settle in Egypt in the 11th century. “When you stand at the top of the Minaret crowning Bab Zuwayla, you are in fact in the middle of the city and you can easily understand how Cairo grew: You can see Al Fustat, the nucleus of urban existence in Old Cairo, Ibn Toulon, the Citadel, Midan Salaheddin, Sultan Hassan Mosque, the Rifai Mosque. From Bab Zuwayla, you get really acquainted with Cairo,” explains Hampikian with a passion that has over the years infected anyone remotely or closely connected to the project.
Monia Cyran a German restorer and art historian is currently involved in the restoration of a rare Ottoman painting. After the 1993 earthquake, pieces of mortar fell off a wall revealing a rare Ottoman painting and beautiful gypsum freezes which had been completely covered by layers of plaster, which reach up to a thickness of 12 cm in some years.
Originally, the whole wall was painted, only a fraction of it remains today. As one climbs up the scaffolding, one can clearly notice the traces of holes hammered into the wall to fix the mortar. Ottoman paintings are rare finds in Cairo. So far only another one has been located in Bayt Al Razzaz.
The Ottoman painting in Bab Zuwayla represents a garden scene: A terrace with columns and trees whose airy touch are reminiscent of those found in old Chinese Paintings. Very little research has been conducted on the subject and it would be interesting to find out what influenced Ottoman painters. A Chinese influence could be explained by the existence of the Silk Road. Nairi Hampikian and her team also found a beautiful inscription completely hidden in between two walls. It was carefully extracted and replaced on a new support. It will eventually be put back in the same place it was found. The main focus of the project involved the restoration of the minarets. “We raised the 400 kg blocks which formed the minarets to 700 kg blocks and experimented a new technique for cleaning the stone; we used calcite powder. Each block has its own history and was put so to speak under a microscope.
Then it was lime washed and rejoined with mortar. We left the chisel marks on the blocks. These marks of tools done in different ages are like a handwriting, which holds the key to the history of the building,” explains Hampikian. Conservation when it is properly done can bring up history but there are different ways to renovate buildings.
Al Azhar was sandblasted and at the time of the inauguration of the Suez Canal, the city underwent a beautification operation and as a result many buildings were painted in red and white stripes. Recently, for the opening of the Metro, some buildings were whitewashed. “By studying the stones, you gradually come up with a map of the life of the monument you are restoring. In the end, no matter what you do, you are only getting acquainted with a building and giving it the remedy it requires. The conservation of stones is a science to itself.”
