Al-Aqmar Mosque in Islamic Cairo’s Moezz Street was re-opened Sunday night by Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary General Mostafa Waziry.
The Bohra community funded restoration work, which began in October last year and cost LE14 million ($451,009) under SCA supervision.
Al-Aqmar was built in 1125 by Fatimid caliph al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah. He ordered his vizier Al-Ma’mun al-Bataihi to oversee the construction.
“Opening this mosque is yet another great achievement of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish antiquities sector of the SCA. Several buildings of archaeological interest have been restored, including the Al-Hakim Mosque, which was opened last February,” Waziry said.
The Al-Hakim Mosque, Egypt’s second largest, is located at the end of Moezz Street near Bab el-Futuh and named after the sixth Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (985-1021).
“The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, represented by the SCA, pays great attention to the Historic Cairo area, where a number of projects are underway, commensurate with its historical and archaeological importance as being one of the sites registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List,” Waziry added.
The mosque covers an area of 500 square metres.
“The facade is the oldest stone facade of a mosque in Cairo,” he said, adding the rest of the mosque is built from the inside in brick.
The courtyard is open and surrounded by four porticos, the largest and deepest of which is the qibla, and the ceilings are covered with shallow domes.
The building has undergone repeated renovations, notably by Prince Suleiman Agha Al-Silhdar in 1821 and the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l’Art Arabe in 1928.
The SCA restored the mosque and removed the buildings that were in front of its façade, so that its decorations appear in full.
Mufaddal Muhammad Hassan, representative of the Bohra’s Sultan in Cairo and Hisham Abdel Aziz, head of the religious sector at the Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) attended the opening ceremony.
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