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MODERN EGYPT

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Bianca
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« on: January 05, 2009, 10:27:49 pm »










The simple prayer rooms contain no furniture, just a few small shelves and a window overlooking the courtyard. In line with the principles spelled out in the UNESCO-inspired plan for salvaging such sites, the rooms will be returned to their original use once the building is handed over to the Ministry of Religious Endowments later this month.

Touring the site amid a flock of journalists, Dr Zahi Hawass admitted to being no particular expert on Islamic architecture; he is more at home in a Pharaonic tomb. But he was nonetheless enthusiastic about the work done on Sheikhu Mosque and its associated structures. Rather than replacing the damaged structures with new materials, he said, the focus has been on conserving the existing fabric of the buildings.

“As you see, the work we are doing here for the first time is not reconstruction, it is conservation,” Hawass told Daily News Egypt. “That’s why when we hire companies to do this work, we have to be sure that they have the expertise in conservation and restoration. And you can see this expertise in the way they have cleaned the walls, for example, as well as the ceilings.”

The detail present in the buildings is indeed impressive. Elaborate Quranic inscriptions in blue and white decorate the ceiling of the main prayer hall in the khanqah. The two minbars (imam’s pulpits) boast delicate carving in stone and wooden mashrabiya screens, while damaged marble floors and mosaics have been patched and re-laid. Everywhere are the distinctive red-and-white-striped arches typical of Mamluk architecture.

In one corner of the khanqah’s prayer hall sits an enclosed space with a smooth marble floor. As conservator Mamdouh Ouda explained, beneath the floor lies the Amir’s tomb, the stone structure above it having been pilfered at some point by “the common people.”

On the walls above the Amir’s resting place are two frescos depicting scenes from Mecca, both of which have been restored to something of their former glory.
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