|
En route to Amr's Mosque you'll pass a turn-off to the right, lined with piles of earthenware pots, jars and waterpipes. Behind them, smouldering rubbish tips and hovels sprawl beneath a pall of smoke, seemingly as far as the Citadel. The hundred-year-old shantytown on the site of ancient Fustat looks - and smells - daunting, but is actually a success story in Third World terms. Its US-sponsored health centre is the most conspicuous example of many recent improvements in a community that used to be at the bottom of the Cairene heap. Should you care to explore, a twenty-minute walk alongside the shantytown will bring you to the remains of Fustat (daily: winter 9am-6pm; summer 9am-9pm; GBPE3). Bring water, a few stones to deter dogs, and above all tread carefully - much of the site consists of centuries-old rubbish tips and kilns, prone to caving in. The foundation walls and water system (still being excavated by the American University) hardly do justice to Fustat's past, though the pottery shards that blanket the site are evocative; some fine early medieval and imported Chinese ware can be seen in the Islamic Arts Museum. Originally a cluster of tribal encampments around Amr's Mosque, Fustat (City of the Tent) evolved into a mud-brick beehive of multistorey dwellings with rooftop gardens, fountains, and a piped water and sewage system unequalled in Europe until the eighteenth century. As the Abbasids, Tulunids and Ikhshidids also built their own cities ever further to the northeast, a great conurbation known as Fustat-Masr was formed. Its decline began in Fatimid times, as the noxious potteries encouraged migration towards Al-Qahira; thieves moved in and dereliction spread like cancer. In 1020, the mad khalif Al-Hakim ordered his troops to sack Fustat-Masr for reasons worthy of Caligula. Yet even in 1168, what remained was so vast that Vizier Shawar decided to evacuate and burn it rather than let the Crusaders occupy the old city beyond Al-Qahira's walls. Set ablaze with 10,000 torches and 20,000 barrels of naphtha, Fustat smouldered for 55 days. Today the Fustat shantytown is inhabited by seventeen thousand people whose filthy work keeps Cairo tolerably clean. Whole families of potters slave over beehive kilns, churning out domestic ware for baladi households and piping for sewers and water mains. Even more important are the zebaleen or rubbish-gatherers . These families collect and sift Cairo's rubbish for anything edible or recyclable. All the glass, cardboard, metal, rags and leather are sold as raw materials to over five hundred factories. Though previously regarded as an embarrassment by the authorities, the zebaleen have made an indispensable contribution to Cairo's ecology, recognized by the award of a prize at the World Earth Summit and an official government contract in 1991. Community amenities are being improved through self-help projects with foreign backing, in a development programme that could be a model for others in the Third World. To return to central Cairo , walk to El-Malek el-Saleh metro station, or head back to the Amr's Mosque and catch a bus (#814 and #945/ to Midan Tahrir; #134/ and #135 to Tahrir and Ramses) or minibus (#53 to Midan Ataba; #58 to Midan Ramses and Midan Tahrir).
Your Tip for Remains of Fustat
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Remains of Fustat - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Remains of Fustat - visit the main Remains of Fustat forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Remains of Fustat webguide section below! Thanks.
|
