Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr
The twin northern gates of Fatimid Cairo — eleventh-century stone fortifications still carrying the graffiti of Napoleon's soldiers.
The northern defences of al-Qahira
Bab al-Futuh ("Gate of Conquests") and Bab al-Nasr ("Gate of Victory") are two of the three surviving gates of the walled Fatimid city of Cairo, together with Bab Zuwayla in the south. Both were built in 1087 by Badr al-Jamali, the Armenian-born commander of the armies and vizier of the caliph al-Mustansir, who replaced the mud-brick walls of the city's founder Jawhar al-Siqilli with fortifications of cut stone and moved them further out to enlarge the city. Bab al-Futuh stands at the northern end of al-Muizz Street; Bab al-Nasr, about two hundred metres to the east, at the head of al-Gamaliya Street. A stretch of wall connects them, bending outwards around the northern minaret of the Mosque of al-Hakim, which the new walls were designed to enclose.
Architecture
The gates are among the oldest and finest examples of military architecture in the Islamic world. Tradition attributes them to three brothers from Edessa (Urfa), probably Christian architects who had fled after the city's capture by the Seljuks, and their stonework shows Syrian and Armenian influence new to Egypt. Bab al-Futuh is a massive block about 23 metres wide, 25 metres deep and 22 metres high, with two rounded towers flanking the entrance; its vaulted passage is covered by a shallow dome on pendentives, the first of its kind in Egypt, and its arch uses "cushion" voussoirs and finely carved brackets. Bab al-Nasr has square towers instead, decorated with carved shields and swords, and a long inscription in Kufic across its façade naming Badr al-Jamali and the caliph and dating the work to 1087. Inside, the gates are a labyrinth of vaulted halls, stairways and arrow slits.
Later history
During the French occupation of 1798–1801, Napoleon's army used the northern walls as a fortified position, naming each tower after an officer; inscriptions such as "Tour Courbin" and "Tour Julien" are still carved into the stone of Bab al-Nasr. The gates and the northern walls between them were restored between 2001 and 2003. They are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Cairo, and the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio included Bab al-Futuh in a painting of 1502.
Exhibo editorial
Most visitors reach Bab al-Futuh at the end of a long walk up al-Muizz and treat it as a full stop. Turn around instead and look at it from outside, from the busy square beyond: two great rounded towers, almost windowless, the stone still crisp after nine hundred years. This is what medieval Cairo looked like to anyone arriving from the north.
Then walk the two hundred metres along the wall to Bab al-Nasr and look for the French. Carved into the eleventh-century masonry, in neat capitals, are the names Napoleon's officers gave the towers — Tour Julien, Tour Courbin — like hotel room numbers on a fortress. Few places in Cairo show so plainly how many armies have passed through.
How to find it
Walk to the northern end of pedestrianised al-Muizz Street: Bab al-Futuh is the great gate with rounded towers just beyond the Mosque of al-Hakim. To reach Bab al-Nasr, either follow the outside of the wall east for about two hundred metres, or walk back inside and take al-Gamaliya Street, which ends at the gate's square towers.
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