The Youssef Well at the Citadel of Salaheddin and the Ali Labib House have reopened to visitors after restoration, reports Nevine El-Aref At the southern corner of the grand Citadel of Salaheddin stands the Youssef Well, a distinguished Ayyubid structure built 916 years ago. Over the centuries it had fallen into disrepair, but following two years of restoration on a budget of LE950,000 it has reopened to visitors. The well is now as pristine as ever, with its walls newly consolidated and polished and all its corridors, stairs and slopes restored to their original state. The wooden wheel used to draw water from the bottom of the shaft to the cistern has been also conserved. The well is one of four built by Salaheddin to supply the Citadel with water before the construction of the aqueduct that later ran between the Nile and the Citadel. It is also known as the Spiral Well owing to its spiral-shaped shafts. However, the name by which it is best known is the Youssef Well -- this may refer to the Patriarch Joseph, who is connected to many sites at the Citadel area, or to Salaheddin himself, whose first name was Youssef. The well is a squared shaft on two levels with spiral passage round it, sunk to a total depth of 90 metres into limestone rock. The bottom level, 40 metres deep, was operated by a saqiya (water wheel) operated by an ox whose circumambulation brought water from the spring to a cistern located halfway up. The upper level is 50 metres deep, and has a platform at the end on which stood a water wheel operated by two oxen to raise the water from the cistern to the surface. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), is delighted with the restoration achieved at the well and says it would be an excellent venue for the showing of films and documentaries. He also says the work being done at the well not only shows that the SCA is fulfilling its duty to preserve Egypt's Islamic history, but also reflects his own devotion to conserving such monuments and answers all the accusations levelled against him concerning his approach to Islamic and Coptic monuments. Hawass tells Al-Ahram Weekly : "Many people have accused me of not caring about the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish monuments of Egypt, but this is not true. I do care for these monuments and do as much for them as for the Pharaonic monuments." However, he continues, Pharaonic is his love. "When you talk about your love, you make other people love it, so it may seem to people that I am not as concerned with other aspects of Egyptian history." He goes on, "I truly love all the history of Egypt, but I am not a specialist in Islamic, Coptic or Jewish studies, and these monuments should be studied by specialists in these fields." Hawass recently inaugurated the first phase of a second development project, the new lighting system that has been installed at the citadel. Ali Helal, who heads the Projects Department at the SCA, says the citadel lighting system was a three-year project carried out in collaboration with the Sound and Light Company to light the citadel so as to highlight it as a landmark of Cairo located at the heart of Egypt's capital. The first phase to light the Mohamed Ali Mosque has been completed, as has 1.5 kilometres of the citadel's external wall. The second phase, which will start soon, aims at lighting the Al-Nasser Mohamed Mosque and the wall surrounding it, while the third phase will light the open court of the Mohamed Ali Mosque and the roads connecting the citadel's main gate to the different sections inside it. Hawass describes the project as a "dream come true". The Ali Labib House in the citadel, the residence of the famous architect Hassan Fathi until his death, was also inaugurated after the completion of its restoration with an LE3.5 million budget. The house in Darb Al-Labbana alley, next to the Qanibay Al-Ramah Mosque in the general Citadel area, was built in the 18th century by a nobleman, Omar El-Malatili, and his brother Ibrahim. Afterwards, according to Mohsen Sayed, head of the Islamic and Coptic Antiquities Department at Hawass's technical office, the house was known as the Ali Labib House and then the Artists' House because it was, most probably, inhabited by a painter or admirer of folkloric art since the walls of the upstairs rooms are decorated with paintings depicting scenes of folk art. Along the span of history it was also inhabited by some of Egypt's most famous artists. Fathi was just one of many. The house is a three-storey residence with three façades embellished with beautiful mashrabiya (wooden lattice work) windows. It has distinguished ceilings decorated with paintings of foliage and stone floors. After restoration Hawass hopes to transform it into a library or a school for teaching Islamic and Coptic history in an attempt to continue giving back to the community.
