Al-Qasr Old Town
A medieval Islamic mud-brick town in the Dakhla Oasis — covered lanes, carved wooden lintels and an Ayyubid minaret.
A fortified oasis town
Al-Qasr, in the north-west of the Dakhla Oasis, is one of the best-preserved medieval Islamic towns in Egypt. Built on the remains of a Roman settlement, it became the capital of the oasis in the Ayyubid period, in the twelfth century, and continued to be inhabited until the twentieth century. Its houses, several storeys high, are built of mud brick and arranged along narrow lanes, many of them covered, which kept the town cool in the desert heat and could be closed at night by gates, dividing it into quarters for different families.
Lintels, mosque and madrasa
The town is famous for its carved wooden door lintels, made of acacia wood, inscribed with Qur'anic verses, the names of the houses' owners and builders, and dates, mostly from the Ottoman period between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Mosque of Nasr al-Din, with a minaret over twenty metres high dating to the Ayyubid period, rises above the town. Other buildings include a madrasa, which also served as a courthouse, an olive press, a grain mill, a blacksmith's workshop and a pottery.
Restoration
Since the late 1990s, the Al-Qasr Dakhla Project, a cooperation between Egyptian authorities and Dutch scholars, has documented and restored parts of the town, including several houses, the madrasa and the lintels, using traditional techniques and training local craftsmen. Some restored houses can be visited, and the old town is now partly inhabited and partly preserved as a heritage site.
Exhibo editorial
Al-Qasr is a time machine. You walk out of the bright desert light into covered lanes so narrow and dark you need a moment for your eyes to adjust, and then the town reveals itself: tall mud houses leaning together, wooden lintels carved with verses and the names of men who built them three hundred years ago, the minaret rising above it all.
Go with a local guide who can open the restored houses and the madrasa, and come back up to the rooftops at sunset, when the view stretches over palm groves and dunes to the pink cliffs of the oasis. It's one of the most atmospheric places in the Western Desert.
Gallery
How to find it
Al-Qasr lies about 30 km north-west of Mut, the main town of the Dakhla Oasis, reached by car along the oasis road. The ticket office is at the entrance to the old town; from there, follow the covered lanes towards the minaret of the Mosque of Nasr al-Din and the restored madrasa.