AFTER 10 years of maintenance and renovations, the Ministry of Culture has managed to restore the beautiful El-Mo'ez Ledin Allah Al-Fatmi Street, the longest in Islamic Cairo. A splendid inauguration ceremony, attended by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, was held early this week to crown the great efforts to turn this street, rich in Islamic monuments, into an open-air museum of Islamic art. The project, which cost LE40 million, saw the restoration of 33 Islamic monument in the street, as well as new houses and bazaars there, making them all look like something out of Egypt's ancient history. The project, which has saved these precious monuments from collapsing because of rising groundwater and encroachments, also allows visitors to imagine that they're walking through Egypt's Islamic history and to admire the places that inspired the wonderful stories of late Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. The major developments in Islamic Cairo will also encourage foreign tourists to visit the bazaars in Khan el-Khalili, as they have to pass through it on their way to and from El-Mo'ez Street. The successful renovation of this Fatimid street should prompt the Ministry of Culture to do more, renovating the entire el-Hussein district and Al-Azhar Street that suffers from chaotic traffic jams round the clock, harming the Islamic monuments on either side. This bustling commercial street should be re-planned, with its shops having the same Islamic design and public buses and lorries being prevented access to it, if it cannot be completely pedestrianised.
