Muizz Street

History of Muizz Street

Muizz Street isn’t your typical street, as it has the greatest concentration of medieval architectural treasures in the Islamic world.  This street redefines words like majesty and beauty and is considered one of Egypt’s finest open-air museums. Muizz Street was constructed by the fourth caliph Al-Muizz of the Fatimid dynasty who took control of Egypt in 969 A.D from the Abbasids dynasty. The new caliph Al-Muizz constructed a new capital Al-Qahira instead of the old one Al Fustat and tried to expand the influence of the Shi’a interpretation of Islam in the land of the Sunni Abbasid caliphate. El Moez street was of course named after the caliph Al-Muizz and as the main street for the Fatimid capital of Egypt which was destroyed by the Sunni caliphates who regained control of the city.

Description of Muizz Street

Muizz Street is famous for containing many monuments like mosques and palaces from the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman dynasties which makes it the heart of Egypt’s Islamic history. The northern part of El Moez street extends from Bab Al-Futuh to Azhar Street next to Khan Al-Khalili. The street holds a big number of craftsmen, shops, antiquities, and many ancient buildings that will make you feel like you are time traveling. Many restorations took place over the years even today.

Historical Buildings of Muizz Street

The Muizz street is filled with a number of amazing monuments from different time periods all along the street from the north to the west from Bab Al-Futuh and ending at Bab Zuweila.

At the northern part of Al-Muizz street between Bab Al-Futuh and Al-Azhar street such as the Mosque of Al-Hakim bi Amr Allah (1013), the Mosque of Sulayman Agha Al-Silahdar (1839), the bayt al-suhaymi (1648-1796), the Mosque of Al-Aqmar (1125), the Sabil-Kuttab of Abdel Rahman Katkhuda (1744), the Qasr Bashtak (1339), the Madrasa of Barquq (1386), Madrasa of Al-Nasir Muhammad (1304), Qalawun Complex (1285), and the Mosque of Taghri Bardi (1440).

On the southern part of Al-Muizz street on the intersection of Al-Azher streets such as the Sultan Al-Ghuri Madrasa (1505), Sultan Al-Ghuri Mausoleum (1505), and the Mosque of Muayyad (1420). At the far south at the exit of Bab Zuweila, there is the Mosque of Salih Tala’i (1160) and Qasaba of Radwan Bey (1650).

The Rehabilitation Project of Mizz Street

The Muizz Street is usually under a series of ongoing extensive renovation and restorations since 1997 across all of its modern buildings, sewerage, pavings, historical building all for the purpose of maintaining the original appearance of the street, even lowering all the buildings to an appropriate height and painted in an appropriate color plus the installment of an exterior lighting on the building to fully showcase the night allure of the street.

Explore the Allure of Cairo City

You can visit this amazing attraction with many other landmarks in Cairo through our Cairo day tours, which give you the chance to explore Egypt with a private Egyptologist tour guide.