The landscape of the Fustat district of Historic Cairo is being rapidly transformed, driven by ongoing development efforts and as part of government plans to revitalise the area and align it with broader development projects across the country.
The Fustat Hills Park project, which spans 500 feddans, is one of the largest parks in the Middle East and an “ecological leap” owing to its being the largest green space in the heart of Cairo.
It features archaeological sites, gardens, mosques, the Ain Al-Hayat Lake, green hills, and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC). It has a children’s creative centre, the Qasaba and adventure areas, an investment area, an excavation zone, and an events plaza for different activities.
It has a marketplace for traditional crafts such as carpet weaving, and pottery, glasswork, and copperware, all aimed at reviving and effectively promoting these heritage crafts, while the Qasaba area has a cinema complex and terraces, a hotel, service buildings, car parks, and an artificial lake with a pedestrian bridge.
The valley and hill zones include walking and cycling pathways, an events area with an open-air theatre, and a commercial zone with restaurants, coffee shops, and stores. The excavation area aims to showcase the ancient city of Fustat, transforming the area into an integrated archaeological and cultural destination.
The park also features an investment area of 131,000 square metres overlooking Lake Ain Al-Hayat, including 12 restaurants, four shopping centres, four car parks, and a Roman theatre.
It is connected to the nearby religious compound in Old Cairo, where the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church that stands atop the Roman Fortress of Babylon, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue have all undergone comprehensive development to restore their historical charm and develop the surrounding area.
Development work at the Egyptian Cairo Club, with an administrative building and swimming pools, has been also completed.
The development of the Fustat Hills Park project, previously a waste area, comes as part of an initiative to develop Historic Cairo and to turn the area in the heart of Egypt’s first Islamic capital into a central public park overlooking many historic and archaeological sites and monuments, making it a regional and international tourist destination.
Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli visited the project on Sunday to inspect the latest developments and intensify efforts to speed up the execution of the project to make it ready for inauguration.
He suggested operationalising some of the park’s facilities at the earliest opportunity to gradually bring it into service.

During his tour, Madbouli announced that some components of the project would soon be opened for operation by private companies, generating revenues to further fund the project’s completion. He highlighted that the investment area is ready for operation.
He also praised the extensive green spaces within the project, affirming that they demonstrate significant progress. However, he urged faster work to increase these green spaces, while ensuring their sustainability.
He said that the government is prioritising the rapid implementation of the presidential initiative to plant 100 million trees in Egypt.
Gamal Mustafa, head of the Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish Antiquities Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), explained that the restoration of the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque and the upgrading of the area in front of it in order to make it the main entrance to the larger religious compound has been completed.
The restoration of the mosque has focused on its architecture. The walls have been consolidated, cracks in the external walls repaired, and all the arcades, wooden and marble columns, wooden beams, ceilings, floors, and other decorations have been conserved.
The main wooden door of the mosque has been restored, as well as the external façades, the stucco windows, and the north and south minarets. The mudbrick and stonework have been cleaned. A groundwater-lowering system has been implemented and new fire and lighting systems installed.
The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, in cooperation with the project’s stakeholders, the Ministry of Housing Utilities and Urban Communities, the Central Agency for Reconstruction, and the Urban Development Fund, are developing roads linking Fatimid Cairo with Fustat and the neighbouring ancient Aqueduct.
HISTORY OF FUSTAT: With the Arab conquest of Egypt in the mid-seventh century CE, Fustat, meaning “tent”, was founded as Egypt’s first Islamic capital city.
Today, it is a part of the Old Cairo district and hosts many important cultural sites, including the Synagogue of Ben Ezra, more than seven Coptic churches, among them the Hanging Church and the St Sergius Church built above the cave where the Holy Family stayed during their journey across Egypt, the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, and the excavated remains of the old city of Fustat, the Nilometer on Roda Island, the Al-Manesterly Palace, and the Mohamed Ali Palace on Manial Island.
AMR IBN AL-AAS MOSQUE: This was the first building planned in the new city of Fustat when it was built, followed by the emir’s palace, the residence of the country’s rulers in the early Islamic era.
Houses were built around the new city, and soon Fustat became a fully-fledged city with residential areas, commercial markets, lanes, and alleyways. At the end of the Fatimid period in the 12th century CE, the city suffered from a huge conflagration that led to the burning of its eastern half. Over time, this area was concealed by mounds of earth, remaining in this condition until 1912 when the first archaeological excavations began.
The remains of the city’s houses and public baths were then uncovered, along with surviving artefacts such as objects from daily life and coins that are now on display at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo.
HANGING CHURCH: This is the most famous Coptic Christian Church in Cairo, as well as possibly the first church built in the basilica style.
It was built during the late fourth or early fifth century CE. However, the earliest mention of the church was made in a biography of Patriarch Joseph I (831-849 CE), when the Arab governor of Egypt visited it. The church was largely rebuilt by the Coptic Pope Abraham (975-978 CE).
In the 11th century and during the tenure of pope Christodolos, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox pope, originally in Alexandria, was transferred to the church when the authorities moved from Alexandria to Cairo.
ABI SERGA CHURCH: This is known as the Saint Sergius Church, the oldest Coptic church in Egypt and one of the places where the Holy Family is believed to have hidden during the biblical flight into Egypt.
It was also the place where many patriarchs of the Coptic Church were elected, among them the Patriarch Isaac (681-692 CE).
The present church was built in the fourth century and dedicated to Sergius and Bacchus, soldier-saints martyred in Syria by the Roman emperor Maximian. It was burned during the fire in Fustat, the new Arab quarter, during the reign of the Caliph Marwan II around 750 CE. It was restored in the eighth century and has been rebuilt and restored many times since.
The most interesting feature of the church is probably the crypt where Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus are said to have rested when they were in Egypt. This is 10 metres deep, and when Nile levels are high it is often flooded. The restoration work on the church has focused on reducing the subsoil water in the tiny shrine beneath the altar and reinforcing the church’s columns, walls, floors, tiles, and ceiling.
THE BEN EZRA SYNAGOGUE: This was originally a sixth-century church near the old Roman Fortress of Babylon. The Synagogue was restored in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Restoration (CCAR) between 1982 and 1991.
In the ninth century CE, Egyptian Jews bought the ancient church and a large piece of land surrounding it and converted the whole area into a Jewish synagogue. This later became internationally famous when writings known as the Geniza Documents were discovered there, casting light on the community in mediaeval times.
These documents, the Ben Ezra Geniza, were uncovered in 1890 when the ceiling of the synagogue’s storeroom collapsed. In 1892, Jacob Saphir, a Jewish researcher, took several thousand documents away and wrote a description of the storeroom and its contents. In 1894, documents dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries CE were removed from the site.
Today, the Taylor-Schechter Collection in the Cambridge University Library in the UK contains most of the rest of the Ben Ezra Documents, some 140,000 rare manuscripts and half a million other documents.
Christian and Muslim influences are apparent in the Synagogue’s architecture and interior decoration. The former is evident in the basilica style, with the ceiling supported by 12 marble columns and decorative motifs including depictions of vines, sheaves of wheat, and olive branches.
Muslim influence can be seen in the carved woodwork and chandeliers. The name of the Mameluke Sultan Qalawun is also inscribed on one of the chandeliers.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 11 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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