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32 Oriental Cairo
several ways is the most notable in Cairo. It is one of the
very larijcst, it is the oldest but one in foundation, and is
the only mosque in Cairo which remains at all in its original
condition. Instead of preserving an original feature here and
there, it nearly all of it remains as Ibn-Tulun built it, except
for the ravages of time and weather. Here you have an
immense area of the durable Arab plaster-work. Here you
see the first use of plastered piers instead of marble columns
taken from temples and churches. Here you have magnifi-
cent examples of the fretted plaster, window tracery, and wall
ornament, for which the Arabs are so justly famous, a
thousand years old. And historically it is equally interesting.
XLI. Old Mameluke Houses near Ibn-Tulun's Mosque
Round the mosque there are some remains of the fortifications
of Ibn-Tulun's citadel, and in the long street down
which you have to drive, skirting the walls of the Ibn-Tulun
Mosque, on your way to the mosque of Kait Bey, there are
some grand old mameluke houses, with the harem windows of
the upper stories hanging far over the street, and latticed with
splendid vieshrebiya work.
XLII. The Mosque of Kait Bey
The mosque of Kait Bey, which lies behind the Ibn-Tulun
Mosque on the edge of the city, is considered the gem. of the
many mosques and palaces which we have remaining of that
famous building Caliph. It was built about the end of the
fifteenth century, and has been admirably restored, and its
old mellow colouring and the .soft lines of its architecture are
unimpaired. Its painted roof is especially beautiful, and pre-
sents some of the most elegant and characteristic effects of
Saracenic decoration.
XLIII. The Ancient Houses of El-Katai and the Tombs
of the Mamelukes
There are several other little mosques with picturesque
exteriors and many ancient houses in this quarter of Cairo