Thursday, May 11, 2006

Rescuing Cairo's Lost Heritage

If you are interested in Cairo's past, don't miss this article, which not only discusses past and present conservation projects but also offers a concise summary of Cairo's history: "Cairo is truly a unique city, and the thousand-year-old historic area (which actually consists of several separate neighborhoods) is one of the world's few surviving medieval cities left intact. Many cities in the Arab world, such as Damascus and Baghdad, have repeatedly been ransacked by invading armies, leaving them stripped of their original layout and structures. By contrast, historic Cairo retains many of the same streets and buildings added to the city during the course of the last millennium. A modern day traveler can find many of the same monuments and landmarks as those mentioned in writings by medieval historians, such as Ibn al-Batuta and al-Maqrizi."

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