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146 Oriental Cairo<br />

re-ercct it on the banks of the Nile, with the modern portion<br />

made worthy of the exquisite old Arabic materials. The<br />

price they would get for the site of the house and garden<br />

in the Sharia Kasr-el-Nil would pay for the new. site, and<br />

the taking down and rebuilding, and leave a very large<br />

surplus. A business quarter has grown up round its present<br />

position.<br />

The chief streets of the Citadel quarter for architecture are<br />

the Gamaliya, the Suk-es-Nahassin, the Suk-es-Zalat, the<br />

Sharia Emir-el-Giyuchi, the Sharia Khordagiya, the Sharia el-<br />

Akkadin, the Sharia el-Menaggadin, the Sukkariya, the Sharia<br />

Kasabat-Radowan, the Sharia el-Magharbelin, the Sharia el-<br />

Serugiya, the Sharia el-Merdani, the Haret-el-Merdani, the<br />

Sharia Darb-el-Ahmah, the Sharia Bab-el- Wazir, the Sharia<br />

el-Magar, the Sharia Suk-es-Sullah, and the Sharia Gama-<br />

mise.<br />

What are the characteristics ; what is the kodaker and<br />

sightseer to look for in one of these Arab streets ? Mosques,<br />

schools, fountains, baths, old palaces, kJians, silks, oil-mills.<br />

Dervish tekkes, and people engaged in the common round<br />

and trivial tasks of native life.<br />

A good street to begin with is the Suk-es-Zalat, which<br />

becomes the Sharia el-Emir-el-Giyuchi, and can be approached<br />

Irom the Esbckiya at the back of the Bristol Hotel by the<br />

street known as Little Sicily, or from the railway station by<br />

the highly picturesque Sharia Bab-el-Bahr. The latter is<br />

preferable unless you have a desire to explore the Fishmarket.<br />

Several times had I cast hungry eyes on the Sharia Bab-el-<br />

Bahr before I explored it, when I had seen pilgrims or<br />

marriage processions disappear between its beetling houses<br />

and shops of strange wares.<br />

When I went down it I was a little disappointed. It was<br />

only semi-Arab till it reached the first of the two s^ks, but<br />

the SClk-es-Zalat is a typical native street with all the points.<br />

A shower of rain converts it into a red sea of mud. It is<br />

bordered with humble shops under, and in between, fine old<br />

mameluke mansions, and it has old mosques and baths and<br />

oil-mills. There are brass-workers here who do a little

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