The 900-year-old Bab Zewaila -- one of the mediaeval walled city of Cairo's main gateways -- has been restored and turned into an open-air museum. Nevine El-Aref attended the inauguration The magnificent mediaeval gateway of Bab Zewaila was designed to withstand invaders but had never actually been tested in battle. Now that the 900-year-old honey-coloured edifice has been restored and inaugurated, tourists will soon be descending upon it from all nations. The gate is located in the heart of historic Cairo at the junction of Al-Mu'ez Street and Darb Al-Ahmar. "After five years of hiding behind scaffolding, piles of sand, and workers who were polishing and strengthening its walls," said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni at the inauguration of the site on Sunday, "Bab Zewaila has finally been restored to the elegance of its younger days." Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), David Welch, the American ambassador in Cairo, and other top US and Egyptian officials were also on hand at the inauguration ceremony. Both Hosni and Welch described the restoration project as evidence of the solid partnership between Egypt and the United States for the preservation of cultural heritage. According to Welch, the US has provided over LE55 million in funding for the preservation and restoration of monuments in Old Cairo, Luxor, Alexandria and the Red Sea. The Bab Zewaila restoration project was carried out by the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) with $2.8 million in funding provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Abdallah El-Attar, head of the SCA's Islamic and Coptic antiquities department, explained that Bab Zewaila -- like other Islamic monuments that are located in heavily populated areas -- had been under dire threat from environmental pollution. The integrity of its stonework and the leaves of the gateway were on the verge of collapse, as a result of air pollution, subsoil water, high humidity, and leakage of drainage water and sewage from decayed pipes installed a century ago. "One of the most serious causes of the damage was the shops built around the structure and the encroachment of traders over the centuries," stressed El-Attar. The leaves of the wooden doorway were barely connected to the upper lintel and were about to collapse. The street level had risen by 1.5 metres, and the material underneath the heavy door leaves had decomposed. The ancient mechanism for moving the doors was no longer operational, so the doors were left standing open, which left them even more vulnerable to decay. "The restoration and conservation of the wooden doors was thus a necessary safety precaution," said El-Attar. Nairy Hampikian, director of the Bab Zewaila restoration project, said that, "because we were faced with a lot of unknown factors, we had to modify and adapt the conservation strategy as we went along." She described the experience as "a fun challenge, and a thrilling experience". According to Hampikian, every element of the doors was documented, and a method for their removal and re- installation devised. Hawass said the entire restoration was carried out using the latest scientific methods, "with every effort made to ensure that all the original architectural features were retained". According to Hawass, restoring monuments like Bab Zewaila has allowed them to be preserved for future generations, as well as helped to revive and upgrade the surrounding neighbourhood. Modern underground infrastructure -- electrical cables, phone lines, water and sewage pipes -- were installed during the restoration process. The street leading to the monument has been paved, and the four shops in the ancient gate's passageway have been conserved and renovated in accordance with the aesthetics of the overall restoration project. According to Hosni, the Ministry of Culture is planning to transform the whole area into an open-air museum, as part of a larger Historic Cairo rehabilitation project. One aspect of this project would involve the removal of slums and workshops from the area, which Hosni assured, would take place in cooperation with the area inhabitants and traders. "Compensation will be provided for every family and trader in the area because we do care about people, and not just the monuments," Hosni said. Valuable archaeological finds were unearthed inside and around Bab Zewaila during the restoration. When the cladding of the eastern door leaf was removed, coins, talismans, threads and ribbons were discovered. "This was not surprising," said Hampikian, who explained that over time, Bab Zewaila locals believed that the spirit of a sheikh named Al-Metwalli inhabited the eastern leaf of the doorway, to which they turned to offer gifts and request blessings in times of pain or uncertainty. During the restoration of one of the walls, a painted relief with the emblem of a sultan named Al-Mansour was found drawn on a gypsum base. Hampikian said they were unable to determine the exact date of the relief, but had narrowed it down to somewhere between "the Fatimid era and Al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh's reign". Some of Bab Zewaila's interior spaces have been turned into exhibition areas. The main hall is now a showcase for objects unearthed around the eastern door leaf, while a second hall will display pipes of various shapes and sizes, water pipes and painted coffee ware. Research on these artefacts revealed that an 18th century coffee shop, as well as a workshop for restoring pottery, had been located around the gate. Ayman Abdel-Moneim, head of the Historic Cairo restoration project, said that Badr Al-Jamali originally built Bab Zewaila in 1092, and that it is named for a Berber tribe that settled nearby. More than three centuries after its construction, the Mameluk sultan Al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh built his mosque next to Bab Zewaila on the site of a notorious prison in which he had been incarcerated. He also erected two tall minarets on the gate's towers. For more than 900 years, the gate has served as an important thoroughfare into the city, as well as a site of commerce, religious devotion, processions, celebrations, and even executions. Bab Zewaila consists of two massive circular towers that descend three metres below the present level of the street, connected by a bridge that arches at the bottom to hold the two wooden leaves of the gate. Between the towers, one passes beneath a shallow dome carried by four large arches. This passageway, today a section of a busy street, leads into the area where the original 10th century city of Al- Qahira used to be. The northern facade of the gate consists of a masonry wall topped by a main platform nearly nine metres high. The southern side of this platform has three arched openings, above which is another platform. The original access to the upper stories of Bab Zewaila was from an L-shaped staircase hidden behind the connecting city wall. The remainder of this staircase still exists today. A new staircase, which visitors now use, was built in the 19th century.
